BrE or AmE in your country??

Wintereis   Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:02 pm GMT
Damien, thanks for the spell check my "froiend". I must stop posting here from my cellphone. It makes me look sloppy. Love to tease . . . sorry. Oddly, I did spell Phenom Pen correctly and that without looking it up as well.
Damian London SW15   Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:49 pm GMT
Oddly enough you didn't, Wintereis!

How about Phnom Penh instead? Either upgrade or change your mobile while you're at it! (Sorry...I mean cellphone). ;-)
chieto   Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:10 pm GMT
Actually it's probably more likely a "smartphone".
chieto   Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:14 pm GMT
@Damian, you learned about ND from this website as I recall.
Islandic sheep   Fri May 01, 2009 6:39 am GMT
in my country Scottish English is enforced:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KsF2X6oe-k
Rick Johnson   Fri May 01, 2009 3:42 pm GMT
North Dakota has a particularly unusual accent to my ears - sounds very German. Think about the film Fargo if you're not sure what it sounds like.
tichen   Sat May 02, 2009 3:26 am GMT
i don't know what do we chinese speak
i think mostly people speak AmE, cos people watch more American TVs,shows
in school , it't too complicated,even the recoreds of my text book use both AmE and BrE, i have been confused since the very beginning of my english learning .it seems that i really speak chingish,neither AmE nor BrE.

i suppose that most chinese would prefer AmE
it's easier to undersand and imitate,thanks to the American TV shows
meanwhile , if anyone in china has a very good british accent , then s/he would definitely be admired very much .few people in china can speak BrE , however, i do know that quite a lot chinese really appreciate BrE.
personally , i practise speaking BrE in secret , but i don't think i make much progress
ex cold warrior   Sat May 02, 2009 3:12 pm GMT
<<North Dakota has a particularly unusual accent to my ears >>

When I was in South Dakota, at Ellsworth AFB near Box Elder (back a few decades ago) I didn't notice any particular accent there, even among non-military locals.
Rick Johnson   Sat May 02, 2009 8:29 pm GMT
OK, its a parody but I have heard people in documentaries sound similar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBSTRK6PUjQ&feature=related
Wintereis   Sat May 02, 2009 9:55 pm GMT
Yes, that accent does exist. More in the E part of North Dakota. I was born in Rapid City, SD and grew up in the Black Hills. Damien, you will remember that when Stephen Fry goes to Mt.Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument. I believes he describes them as an instance of Americans over doing it. We do like things rather grand. But Britan is no less so to our eyes. Where the Brits would never decide to carve an entire mountain, Americans would never dream of showing so much pomp in our political and governmental ceremonies as the British do. We would think it goddy and ridiculous. But back to the SD accent . . . no, it is not like the one we ascribe to ND. The SD accent is not vesy distinguishable from GA.
Wintereis   Sat May 02, 2009 10:12 pm GMT
Since you are all going to jump on me about the little things, exchange "goes" with "went" in the above. And vesy with very . . . I do like vesy, however, if it isnt a word, some one should coin it. It could be used two describe a person who doesn`t give a shitt about speling wurds correktly on forrums. For inztance, Wintereyes is a vesy poester too Antymoon.
B   Sun May 03, 2009 4:22 am GMT
Yes, I've met quite a few people from South Dakota, and they don't sound any different from people here.
Trimac20   Sun May 03, 2009 5:15 am GMT
What difference does it make, seems to apply mostly to written English. They'll most likely end up speaking English in their native accent anyway. :-P
Gine   Sun May 03, 2009 6:44 pm GMT
They teach American English because American English is real English. We Americans pronounce English words they way they should be pronounced. We say them correctly. While Brits on the other hand pronounce English in a way that it should never be spoken. Brits often leave out letters when they speak and or say the word weird.

Like the 'what'

American say: What....with a T on the end.
Brits say: Whao. A very sharp whoa.

They don't pronounce their T's -_______________-.

This is just one thing that makes Brit English wrong and fake.
Eng   Sun May 03, 2009 9:20 pm GMT
No, North American English glottalizes the T in what (as in "What!", or it becomes an alveolar flap if a vowel follows it: as in "what are you doing?" --> "whud are you doing?".