I have no recollection of this point ever having been taught this point at all (and my Scottish schooldays overlap with yours).

To my mind is simply a question of preferred style of expression.

I do hope that some contributors to this discussion are more equable in their private lives than in this column - in fact I hope that some of them have some kind of a life at all!

Best wishes, however you wish them expressed, from Scotland. I will leave others to fight over the bones of this debate!

Mediator, perhaps you would like to remove this last comment. I wasn't aware that this site was an open forum for abuse, and unfortunately the "report abuse" link doesn't seem to be working.

My comment was that "I received" the expression as americanised.
What does this have to do with my education or its location?

Do 13 years in Scottish schools and 4 years at an ancient Scottish university count as an education by your exacting standards?

What a shame that your own educational establishments provided you with no more reasoned forms of expression than "utter rubbish" and "sure as hell".

Dear Hairy Scot

I can probably claim to be hairier than you - photos can substantiate the claim if you insist.

You cannot be more Scottish than me (OK - I do have, if tortured, have to admit to one English great-grandmother. (ancestry website is primed to demonstrate)

And I have the great advantages
1) of having remained in Scotland (for an indeterminate number of years exceeding 50 except time spent studying languages abroad)
and
2) of having languages/translation as my profession.

I receive "different from "as americanised.

However there is obviously a significant difference in native (GB) language speakers' opinion on this one, so why do we go on claiming superiority?

My English/Scots usage is different to yours, yours is different to mine. It may be different to mine, but I do not argue that it is superior to mine or inferior to mine.
(Could there be parellels there.......)

Lang may yer lum reek, wha's like us.......

I delighted that kids are passionate about English usage, but I'm afraid that you do need to check your sources, Tom.

Perhaps you have been given advice which is very different to the advice given to me.

I personally would never dream of saying "different from", which sounds very clumsy to me. I have the authority of Fowler to back me on the acceptability of "different to" (see earlier in this thread), so I'm afraid that his venerable opinion is different to yours.

But there again my English usage can be different to your English usage without either of us being wrong.

My level of "poshness" is (thank goodness) somewhere well below zero, but my level of education is very different to my level on the social ladder.

Don't make the mistake of supposing that "posh" = "correct". The moneyed classes may have an education which is different to mine, but I refute the idea that it is superior.

Groucho: In this context
"Different to... traditional schools" = standard anywhere English.
"Different than...traditional schools" - not a usage I have heard.
"Different from... traditional schools" may be US English which is now turning back and influencing some GB usage.

John C - you are absolutely correct, but I bet you wish you hadn't misused your apostrophe on this site...

British English: my answer is different to your answer

US English: my answer is different from your answer.

Each is different to the other - oops - does that betray my location?

Each sounds wrong to the other.

Clear now?