[American English]According to the
report from Wikipedia, the
use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking
settlers arrived in North America during the 17th century, followed by
further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, American English
has been influenced by the languages of West Africa, the Native American population, German, Irish, Spanish, and other languages of successive waves
of immigrants to the U.S.
This following picture not only shows the difference of vocabulary and
spelling in American English and British English, but also shows that how many
people are real British English speakers.
[English education]However British English as spoken and written in the Commonwealth of Nations, with the
exception of those Commonwealth countries which have developed their own
distinctive dialects such as Australia and Canada. Half of the population of native English speakers has written American
English. People in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, are learned by American English.
[Canadian English and Australian English]Chief among other native English dialects are Canadian English and Australian English, which rank third
and fourth in the number of
native speakers. For the most part, Canadian English, while featuring
numerous British forms alongside indigenous Canadianisms, shares vocabulary,
phonology and syntax with American English, leading many to recognize North
American English as an organic grouping of dialects. Australian
English likewise shares many American and British English usages alongside
plentiful features unique to Australia, and retains a significantly higher
degree of distinctiveness from both the larger varieties than does Canadian
English.
As a student major in English language and literature, I begin to realize
that the predominance of American English in English education has led a lack of awareness of
other world English. So why we have been taught American English only since childhood? I am always curious about this question.
After growing up, I began to realize that not only American English, but also
The British English, Australian English and so on. Nowadays almost all the
students through the world learn English in terms of English is widely learned
as a second language and it is an official language in many world
organizations. It has already made us seem uniformly. Actually we have lots of
choices about learning English.
Secondly, for me
I love The British English very much. I took a course, phonetics, last semester and I
began to know how the Received
Pronunciation is. Actually before taking this phonetics class, I had always thought that American
English is the most popular way to talk with other western country foreigners.
Obviously there are lots of
people, like me, are into other world English.
The following link will show you the
difference between American English and the British English. It is really
funny, enjoy it!
However, we were
taught American English since we were very young. In a way, an
idea that American English is the best, the most popular way in
communicating with western foreigners is speaking American English. This kind of idea has been implanted in our mind unconsciously. I
even heard that some people think Australian English is very rustic. Whereas,
all off the language is beautiful. It is not a right or wrong question. None of
us has a right to judge any other language. The following links will show
you that how interesting and attractive other world English can be.
May be this video is more funny, and the British man from this video, 영국남자, I know he is very popular
recently. He also shows the different accents between American English and British
English with his American friends. Hope you can enjoy it.
Then, I am
willing to talk about the variety of language and culture. The
British English is spoken and written almost in the United Kingdom, with an estimated 64.1 million
inhabitants. It means that people, who are really British English speakers is
very limited. May I infer that one day British English will totally be replaced
by American
English? Will it means that the variety of cultures,
especially the diversity of languages may weaken seriously in the future? Compared to the
quantity of American English, I feel so sad about the amount of British English
speakers.
In addition, this following
link will show more difference between American English and British English in
details.
So
why not learn some other world English instead of American English only. In
terms of this article, if you get some new information about world English and
begin to curious about world English I will be really appreciate.
