Quote:
Originally Posted by Nikko
As everyone knows England and America have different spellings(e.g mum and mom) and pronounciations of words(e.g leisure) and different words for different things (e.g jam and jelly)...so people learning english,what do they learn? English English or American English? or does it depend on which country your nearest to??
Never thought about it before...
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first of all, (speaking as an american) english-english utilizes the correct spellings and/or pronunciations of the english language in general. american-english is much less respective of the grammatical rules. when we r told as american children that saying "groompy" instead of "grumpy" is incorrect, what we r being taught is that it is incorrect by american standards. it has something to do with difference in accents but more to do with the correct pronunciation of the word itself. if american-english followed the rules set forth by the first crude speakers of anglo-saxon, germanic, and even latin, then we would all sound english (british!)
as far as saying wierd stuff like "cheerio" and "mum" those things are merely colloquialisms or idioms. cultural slang.
and as for "jam" and "jelly", the real definition depends upon the process in which it was made.
foreigners do tend to learn american english moreso than english-english though. merely because we are seen as economically superior and influencial in that certain country.
in short, it really depends on 2 things: 1) who teaches u? an englishman or an american? 2) can your tongue handle it? depending on what your native language is, your tongue may have an easier time accenting in one english than another. this can also be traced back to breast-feeding. children who r breast-feed will have stronger mandibles (jaws) and may have the luxury of sounding like a native in almost any language they study.
whooo! if all else fails, just do tongue exercises:
