"Non-native English speakers. UK or US English?" Topic

What were you taught in school?

Growing up in Denmark, we were taught UK English as the standard, however, since many people had been exchange students, in pretty much every case I can remember, you were permitted to use US or other spellings if you were consistent with it.

One of the harsher (but also more awesome) teachers I had in high school would score you down mercilessly if you mixed up US and UK spelling in a paper :)

As an interesting fact, no doubt due to the influence of X Files and Beverly Hills at the time, US pronunciation was always acceptable.

Here in California, when I was teaching GED, if the person was from Latin America, US…anywhere else, UK. I loved the Sudanese English accent.

I have a big soft spot for South African English. One of my old coworkers grew up in South Africa and I loved listening to him talk.

US English here in Indonesia. But that was almost 2 decades ago…

In the Netherlands it was strictly UK English – but that was 45 years ago, no idea if it still applies.

The one that always leaves me bemused is when people with English as a second language have an American accent – I most often notice that in Swedes. Given the prevalence of American TV and films, it's not that surprising really, but it still throws me slightly.

It is funny that you should mention Sudanese English speakers. I had a number of adult refugee Sudanese students back when I taught in the local college and they had an amazing ability to pick up English from almost a standing start and their pronunciation was nearly flawless. Wonderfully friendly people too.

We have a lot of Filipinos here- nice folk. Their nasal, twang American English is a delight to hear.

Our school (in the US) sent an exchange student to Spain and she complained about the English teachers there marking her down for using American versions of things. The example I remember was she wrote "in THE hospital"(which we Americans always say) rather than "in hospital."

Dr Skull : probably because, in colloquial UK usage, these would have slightly different meanings. Either could be used but, where the context did not make the meaning clear, it could lead to misunderstanding so possibly her tutors felt she had not been precise enough in her meaning.

English must be a sod of a language to learn for a non-native speaker if you go by the number of native speakers who never seem to get the hang of it !!!

I wonder if Latin american and European spanish have the same problem?

Given the juggernaut that is India, UK English is the more common….

Dom – I worked for a Swedish company once and not a single one of them had an American accent. Granted, that was only one hundred or so of the Swedish population…

Given the nature and content of wargame rules – which tend not to refer to 'pants', 'purses' &c. – I doubt that using either UK or US English would be likely to cause much confusion. American spellings – 'color', 'honor' &c. – are perfectly intelligible to UK English speakers, and are, in fact, 18th century English spellings, used by the first Duke of Wellington.

American usage and spelling would be entirely appropriate for games set on that continent or involving American characters.

But perhaps future wargame rules for the younger generation will be written in text speak anyway!

"rll 2 hit: if rll 7+ :). if rll 2-3 no ammo :("

We had a French exchange student living with us for a year. I expected she would have an 'Allo! 'Allo! accent, but when she arrived she certainly sounded more American, but with a European lilt.

Mind you, by the time she left, she was speaking almost perfect New Zealand teenage English – much to the oonfusion of her English teacher back home in Paris.

(Oh, and in terms of different types of French, she said she could hardly understand French-Canadian)

I have had the experience, as a writer of British English, of collaborating with a Canadian editor (and thus a user of British English) in making sure that a series of books set in Victorian England used American spelling for the US market.

Australian English is a dead language with the wannabe American under 40s in this country (that is, the majority).

In last week's issue of the local free, weekly rag a semi-literate columnist(actually a former sports-person)used the term 'take-out'. When I like read it, I was like omigod!

One of the harsher (but also more awesome) teachers I had in high school would score you down mercilessly if you mixed up US and UK spelling in a paper :)

As a native US English speaker, I was taught Hillbilly in school and thoroughly enjoyed when a kid from Texas and a kid from Boston couldn't understand each other in AP English.

In the tons of UK English Fantasy, SF, VSF, and translated from another language fantasy and SF I read as a schoolboy, I picked up the occasional "superfluous u" and the odd term, such as "schoolboy" (though that may have come from 20'3 and 30's pulp novels, as well).

<<I wonder if Latin american and European spanish have the same problem?>>

Yes – if they stay text book then they can easily communicate – but there are differences and the more colloquial they get the bigger the differences are.

At least, so said my Argentine and Spanish colleagues in my previous and current jobs. As did, the Colombian and Spaniards at my rugby club – so while my sample size is around a dozen people there's a fair range of connections in there all saying the same thing.

Dom, you are correct. Comes from being taught UK in school four hours a week and then listening to US on TV four hours a day while growing up. Me, I sound like Slim Pickens in Blazing Saddles.

What a perfect role model…. ;-)

The Swedes getting taught UK English in school really annoyed the American kids in the English wing of the school I went to in Stockholm for a couple of years…..

Mostly I think because in spelling lessons I kept saying 'that's how we spell it in England' and getting credit and the kids didn't really believe it (despite the teacher having the OED to check on me) – but when they we went into the Swedish kids classes it turned that was how the Swedes were spelling their English…