Comments on: Americans Don't Speak English

By: PennineLady

PennineLady — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:31:15 +0000

It’s a good article but I still prefer “colour” to “color”…it looks better.

As an American said in the BBC documentary Stephen Fry In America,
many Americans do seem to want to simplify things too much.
Many things in life are complex and are that way for good reasons!

I’ve visited the USA a few times and I always cringe at the way some Americans
think they can just alter or make up words because they “sound cool”.
“Winningest” was one of the worst examples…

It’s not “all the same language” it’s branches of the same language! It came from the British Isles, not “England”. England is firmly attached to Scotland and Wales.

Whenever I visit the USA, I usually get people assuming I’m Australian…it doesn’t happen in Canada…strange!

By: Bernardus

Bernardus — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:24:49 +0000

I found myself some time ago chatting with an american about accents in US. I’m venezuelan, my native tongue is spanish, and I couldn’t believe in such a large country people virtually had no accents, or at least so few.

Venezuela is less than one tenth of the size of US, and believe me, I’ve really had hard time trying to understand what people say in some places here in my own country when traveling. Not to say most latinamericans prefer watching subtitled movies rather than dubbed in iberic spanish.

All I wanted to say with this was that you guys are lucky english is not that different around the globe.

By: Some British guy

Some British guy — Sun, 22 May 2011 00:01:49 +0000

However, what I do have a problem with is wen the frigin Auss cum around and try to say things like Australian English is beter than American English because they hapen to kep in al those crazy unecesary leters and such.

Musl, iland, nife, nees, anser, receet, choclat.

By: I Live in a Bilingual Household

I Live in a Bilingual Household — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:36:04 +0000

[...] you read my post about how Americans don’t speak English? It mentions the language barrier that exists between my partner and I because of his Australian [...]

By: jack

jack — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:20:36 +0000

oh come on people, Lighten Up…..Its All The Same Language..there are some differences here and there, but 90% is the same…Im American, and i can understand English people, Australian, Canadian, etc…there is no better or worse, there are just different dialects, and accents, and i enjoy hearing them all…no need to get all worked up about it…we all (English Speakers) Speak The Same Language we got from England..we just Do It Slightly Differently….

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:25:44 +0000

This is incorrect. I lived in China and Korea for a several years, and they most certainly knew the terms “British English” and “American English” there.

By: e

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:20:48 +0000

A big difference between American English and British English is the spelling of various words.

You do realise that no-one outside the United States recognises the term ‘British English’ don’t you? It is called standard English. English. Not American English; American English is bastardised English, like Mexican Spanish is bastardised Spanish. Deal with it. The UK wins this one. Why can’t you just accept that?

And please stop putting the United States flag next to ‘English’ on websites. You do not speak English!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:43:41 +0000

The various forms of English was one of the first things that hit me when I started spending time with English speaking expats here in Germany. There are so many and some of them are harder to understand than others. I personally find the Australian the most difficult. I have an English teacher friend with a mostly Australian accent and we are constantly talking at odds to each other. Heck even inside of the US we don’t all speak the same. There are accents there that I have a very hard time understanding. The language is going to develop as it is going to develop. There is no One English, nor should there be.

English is in the end a living language. It changes, it moves and alters based on it’s usage. The language itself is a goofy mix of old high German and noble French anyway. If by creating, you mean the Anglo-Saxons/British bastardized two languages into one, then yes they created it. American English was heavily influenced by the Italian immigrants and later by the Jewish immigrants. Our language has developed based on our people.

There is an awful lot of culture and identity tied up in language. This seems to be the root of why all the various accent groups bicker with each other. It is what makes us unique. The accusation of American English as ‘dumbing down the whole language’ is part of this too. The superiority of one accent over another is side-round argument for nations and peoples over each other. I say, speak what you want, but don’t force that on someone else y’all.

By: Erica

Erica — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:13:32 +0000

The only time I really ran into this was when we were in Barbados. It was Brit English with Caribbean English mixed together. I already have hearing issues with accents but it definitely made for some very confused looks from hubby and I.

By: Erica

Erica — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:12:03 +0000

But we DO say Ag-il!