Aibu to think other European countries don't have a class system or educational class system like the UK.. If there are any what countries are they?

[Stellanotbud]

Aibu to think that most European countries especially former communist countries don't have a class system or educational class system like the UK.. Most kids all go to state school & muddle along? Snobbery isn't a prevelant in most European countries & educational standards are high & mostly state run.

Meant this for aibu!

I think all countries have a class system, it just isn't always as overt as in the UK.
I think in other countries they value education which doesn't go down the traditional academic route, apprenticeships which develop skills. The training is seen as a legitimate educational route, not a lower option. In Britain there is a tendency to think that anyone without traditional academic qualifications is thick.

Posted too soon. I meant to add that the class system abroad will manifest itself in different ways and might not be as obvious as which school a person attended.

@ImAvingOops yes I agree with you on that.. Britian & the USA seem to have a similar mindset regarding trades & apprenticeships. I've said it on here before the families locally who can afford the ski & sun holidays twice a year & private schools are the plumbers & electricians. They are out the door in my area & can charge what they like😩

Former communist countries are more likely to have class systems. Class is a very communist concept. It groups people as bundles according to their background, wealth, and occupation, and sets them against each other. Nowadays, class in Eastern Europe particularly tends to go along income and occupation lines, which are a little more clear cut than they are in the UK (where for example, a builder can easily earn several times what a teacher does.)

I’ve only lived in France as well as England. The French ‘class’ system is just as strong, it is just different . There is also much more regional distinction / discrimination ( many French people are bizarre about Brittany, for example). Contrary to British assumptions, the racism, at least outside the big cities, is more overt, as well.

Theoretically, there are no titles. I knew a Marquis and a Duc, though ( we lived in a heavily chateau area), and people loved addressing and referring to them as M. le Duc etc.

I’ve certainly known some extremely class conscious (or just plain snobbish) French people. Heaven help you if you live in the wrong Paris arrondissement!

And the German woman we bought our house from (OK, a long time ago) was a very sniffy snob about people whose jobs she thought ‘inferior’.

IMO it’s a popular fallacy in the U.K. that class isn’t a ‘thing’ anywhere else. As for America, I’ve heard plenty of disparaging talk about people who live ‘in the projects’, i.e. social housing.

Going back many years, to when I did my French exchange trip, for the last few days I accompanied my French counterpart to school. After I’d spoken to one fellow classmate, my French girl drew me aside and whispered, ‘Elle n’est pas fille comme nous. Sa mere est comtesse!’
(Yes, I know there should be a grave accent on mere)

Our Romanian friend explained to us that people from the city in Romania make fun of those from the countryside with their yokel accents and poorer incomes. I think the concept of class exists everywhere and it's very damaging really.

Here it tends to be which school you attended. Private or public etc. Nothing to do with your occupation, as such. Plumbers are pretty highly thought of, for example and also very highly paid and no one ever looks down on the tradies. It is different and more wealth based here, we don’t have much in the way of an inherited aristocracy.

DH is German and I think that there is still very much a class structure there and in Austria. I don’t think it’s as entrenched or immobile as here but it’s still there

Apparently southern French people make fun of northern French people for speaking too slow, they sound too much like Flemish speakers.

Anyone heard the northern Italians talking about the southern Italians?