[Motivated]

Okay people, it's come to the point where I've had a gutful of being told that my English isn't quite good enough because I'm not UH-MERIKAN.

I've never watched 'Friends' and I really don't give a toss who lives or dies on 'E.R.' In fact, I hope they all choke to death. Since when has the word 'like' become an indispensible and integral part of a typical Uh-Merikan sentence?

Since when is was Uh-Merikan language considered 'English'??

Is 'yo' and 'sup my main *****' now an acceptable greeting in the classroom? - even to other students who have never set foot on the mean nasty streets of lame-*** places like Seoul or Beijing, let alone the candy-*** 9mm 'buss a cap in yo ***' streets of LA?

What ever happened to the Queen's English?

The trend sucks.

Just seeing it in action. And how sad it is.

[DaveESL]

Quote Motivated

What ever happened to the Queen's English?

The trend sucks.

"Sucks?" What would the queen say?

[emile]

English is a living thing and in time conventional usage becomes the rules.

So if everybody speaks 'Uh-merican', then that's how it's going to be.

Just chill, dawg

[simplyesl]

England, Canada, Aus, US etc all have slight differences in how they use English and sts usually take after their teachers and how they speak. I have come across many classes that were taught American spelling and what not... I do encourage them to spell the aus/british way. I'm also guilty of throwing some aus slang into my lessons on occasions.

[mesmark]

I hear you dawg, but it aint that the ’ｍericans' English is all that and then some. 'at's just where the dolla's are, man.

Companies and countries for that matter are looking to do business with America. Don't take it personally, it's just business.

Evidentally, they can't even find Brits who speak RP.

[susan53]

If you teach in Europe, you're just as likely to find the opposite. here UK English tends to be the norm, though obviously companies who have strong contacts with the US may want to know the differences between the two dialects. I work with people who are involved in meetings etc at an EU level, and the demand is primarily for standard UK English - at most a "mid-Atlantic" variety, which personally is what I tend to teach. If my (Italian) students are mainly going to be speaking to Germans, Czechs or Koreans they have no more need to understand someone from the Isle of Dogs than someone from the Bronx. 90% of our students now need English as an international language. Specific native speaker varieties are irrelevant to all but the minority who intend to live in those areas or work closely with native speakers.