[Suki]

Originally Posted by chachava

Over here, British English is held in a slightly higher regard because it is where the language originally spread from.

lol So speaking in a strong British accent makes you sound more intelligent? Ok, now I know what I'll be doign in summer x)

Originally Posted by anrakushi

I do think it is confusing for those learning english that there are two ways of spelling so many words. you will see some students mixing the spellings together, sometimes using colour, sometimes color etc..

It's not confusing at all. Do you think anyone would actually see the word 'color' written and not know it means the same as colour? I've never had any kind of problems with that, nor have any of the people I know who've studied English as their second language. Sometimes the difference in words can be a tad bit confusing, like when I was once told to "have a check in the boot of the car", but it wasn't really hard for me to realize that the guy was refering to the trunk. It's only a matter of getting used to it.

Originally Posted by anrakushi

I have nothing against the american accent except for the way you say can't, because that pronunciation is taught to the students i work with in their home countries and it sounds far too similar to can. we pronounce it similar to carn't so the sound is stronger and easier to distinguish in those ESL speakers. however in native speakers of American English i haven't noticed it being as hard to distinguish but i think learners have difficulty pronouncing it your way so it turns out similar to can.

Well a and æ are two different sounds. The a sound in 'can' is hardly audible [k'n] but this very same sound in 'can't' sounds more like kean(t)

It's really not hard to distinguish after hearing it lots of times ^^