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American/ British English usage?

 

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  #11  
Old March 11, 2010, 03:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by annabwashere View Post
You didn't say what variety you spoke. American or British?

BrE - or English English as I prefer to say!

I get very irritated when I hear people say they speak British (as if British is a language, as opposed to BrE)!

I think as Here4good said in her original post - it must be a BrE /AmE thing!
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  #12  
Old March 11, 2010, 03:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by annabwashere View Post
You didn't say what variety you spoke. American or British?
xchic is a Brit, like me
Thankyou for your comments everybody
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  #13  
Old March 11, 2010, 03:54 AM
annabwashere annabwashere is offline
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Hahaha! I don't know anyone who just says "British" and not "British English". Of course, in my post, I was referring to a variety and I don't need to be redundant.

Anyway, the same irritation happens when US people refer to themselves as "American" as if Canadians, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, etc are not from America.

Whatever, I say. I don't prefer to split hairs.
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  #14  
Old March 11, 2010, 03:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Here4good View Post
xchic is a Brit, like me
Thankyou for your comments everybody
Has it ever caused you problems that you teach BrE?

I actually had a student leave one of my groups because all our books were BrE & he wanted to learn AmE!
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  #15  
Old March 11, 2010, 03:57 AM
annabwashere annabwashere is offline
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My students prefer to learn AmE, not BrE. At least that's what they tell me.

I get inquiries for private classes based solely on the fact that I state my variety of English is American. All inquiries start with "I am contacting you because you speak American English and I want to learn that kind of English" or something to that effect.
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  #16  
Old March 11, 2010, 04:00 AM
Here4good Here4good is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xchic View Post
Has it ever caused you problems that you teach BrE?

I actually had a student leave one of my groups because all our books were BrE & he wanted to learn AmE!
No, al revés, la mayoría quieren aprender inglés Británico (algunos por razones de puro esnobismo) Tengo bastantes amigos (Norte)Americanos aquí y sus hijos sí han tenido problemas en el colegio con profesores no aceptando su forma de expresarse p.e. center/ centre, pants/ trousers etc

PD Quiere aprender, ¿no?

Last edited by Here4good; March 11, 2010 at 04:13 AM.
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  #17  
Old March 11, 2010, 11:23 AM
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I see nothing wrong at all, provided that there has been a list, and this is the last item. I would have said finally, but maybe that's just personal choice.
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  #18  
Old March 11, 2010, 11:57 AM
Here4good Here4good is offline
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Originally Posted by Perikles View Post
I see nothing wrong at all, provided that there has been a list, and this is the last item. I would have said finally, but maybe that's just personal choice.
There's no issue with lastly. It was the last recommenation in a list so lastly is correct. It shouldn't be corrected to at last nor firstly as has been suggested in other posts.
I didn't want to say anything before because I wanted to see if anyone would pick out the usage of take /bring, which they did!

Thanks everyone
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  #19  
Old March 11, 2010, 12:02 PM
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My grammar bood (BrE) says that one uses bring when the interlocutors are in two different places, for instance: I'll bring you the books from London. So, in your sentence, that would be an example of how the shop is addressing to you as in a dialogue. My book says that "take" is used when the direction is not the one between the speakers.

I think here, in Spain, is more common learning BrE as in Europe is more common learnign Spanish from Spain or English from GB (and just on the contrary in America -both English and Spanish-). I guess that proximity is the main reason, since surely I would go to GB before to USA, for it's nearer to my country. I don't think that snobbery has anything to do with it.
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  #20  
Old March 11, 2010, 12:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by irmamar View Post
I think here, in Spain, is more common learning BrE as in Europe is more common learnign Spanish from Spain or English from GB (and just on the contrary in America -both English and Spanish-). I guess that proximity is the main reason, since surely I would go to GB before to USA, for it's nearer to my country. I don't think that snobbery has anything to do with it.
Hi irmamar,
Yes, I think proximity of the country has a lot to do with it and it's logical to think that a Spaniard will have more contact with Br Eng.
However, I can assure you that every few months someone will ask me to confirm their opinion of American English being "not so good" as Br Eng., that they (Americans) don't speak very well, and to crown it all the student will say that it's not very good English because "I can't understand it" They don't seem to realise there are different regional as well as country accents, that millions of people speak American English and are doing very well in life, that one country is not "better" than another.
Likewise there are many people who only accept the British Council, where undoubtably the teaching is good, as the place to learn English much as they select clothes from Burbury or Aldolfo Dominguez, just for the name
There are hundreds of good teachers an academies in Spain and you don't need to be rich to learn English.

No es un ataque contra tí irmamar, sólo te cuento lo que pasa
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