British English is treated badly

Paul   Friday, May 27, 2005, 13:38 GMT
Many corporate sites on the internet treat British English disrespectfully. There's nothing wrong with using U.S. English in a global context, for example on investor relation pages, why not, I mean, the U.S. is a much larger market than the UK.
But, please, why use U.S. English is places where it is not appropriate?
Especially in Europe, I've noticed a tendency to use U.S. English more and more on websites, even if it doesn't make any sense.
Examples:
http://www.eurotv.com/main.htm
A European portal for TV programmes. However, they use U.S. English: "favorite", "TV programs". Why? The only English-speaking country listed is the UK. The page is obviously for Europeans.

http://www.google.co.uk/ads/
http://www.google.ie/ads/
Compare these two Google pages. Google has created a UK version for the UK, but they have used the US version (note: "Advertising programs"; all the links contain en-US) for Ireland. And not only for Ireland. If you have a close look at the international Google sites, you'll find that they have localised the UK and the Australian site, but all the other English-speaking countries get the US version (Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore...) That doesn't make sense. Does Google really think that British English is only used in the UK and Australia and that all the other countries use U.S. English?

Samsung also seems to believe that UK English is a strange exception:
They've only changed "Press Centre" on the UK site:
http://www.samsung.co.uk/cgi-bin/ecuk/main/samsunguk.jsp
But not, for example, on the Australian site:
http://www.samsung.com/au/index.htm
JJM   Friday, May 27, 2005, 14:23 GMT
Paul:

Face the inevitable. AE is surpassing BE as the preferred "default" accent globally. Given that the US has the largest and most financially influential English-speaking population in the world, this should be no surprise.

I've noted that even the accents of the staff in India-based call centres are increasingly American!
Paul   Friday, May 27, 2005, 14:58 GMT
JJM, I know that. But that's not what I mean. I could live with that.

What I'm saying is that websites that are not intended for Americans, but for English native speakers from other countries, U.S. English should not be used.
I noticed that some companies use U.S. English on their websites, but create local sites for the UK, Australia and non-English speaking countries like Finland and Germany. However, sometimes the content of the UK site has just been copied from the US site. Why do they create a UK localisation if they don't care about the English? It doesn't make sense.
Sander   Friday, May 27, 2005, 15:01 GMT
Treated badly?! As far as I know,most countries have their English classes based on British-English (or Queens English) When I was at what you call highschool,my English teacher always hated it when people pronounced it 'The American way" talking about bad treatment.. ;)
Juan   Friday, May 27, 2005, 16:23 GMT
Yes Sander, indeed, RP English (British), It's just the standard English, 97 % in all EU countries...At least in Schools, Universities...people can speak in the streets whatever they want or even Japanese…Your subject is irrelevant. Besides people look down at Americanised English or accents here in Europe…

American English it’s just easier, a more simplified spelling and grammar, being adopted by some “Lazy” Europeans who dislike “the posh” English or RP.
Travis   Friday, May 27, 2005, 17:02 GMT
I wouldn't say that North American English is grammatically simpler than RP. If anything, I'd say that it's more complex in some regards, due to its replacement of many modal usages in speech with periphrasic constructions in spoken usage, and certain modal verbs in spoken usage having taken on new inflectional forms as well. And yes, it's different in other ways as well, grammatically, but that doesn't necessarily make it simpler per se.
Riko   Friday, May 27, 2005, 17:42 GMT
north American English is the idiom that is used by the people who control the world. People learn English in the first place so that they can communicate and understand this. Comparing National Public Radio with the BBC, you can note the difference. NPR works on a bigger palatte. No one would be learning English if it were not for the u.s. It would be nice if in the UK they adopted U.S. english language and norms, so that there would be a standard in spelling, grammar, etc.
Mxsmanic   Friday, May 27, 2005, 18:05 GMT
American English has a slightly more phonetic pronunciation (the most glaring example of this being its rhotic pronunciation) and spelling. Grammar differences are trivial, as are most other differences beyond the two just mentioned.

Since WWI, the motor of English-language ascendancy around the world has been the United States, not the UK; the UK is merely a happy beneficiary of this. Increasingly American English is becoming the preferred form of English, where a preference exists. Many Europeans still claim to prefer British English, no doubt because the UK is in Europe (in theory), but elsewhere American English continues to gain ground. Asians generally prefer American English.

If it's any consolation, one of my regular students has asked to change teachers because she prefers someone with a British accent to someone with an American accent; I think she considers the British accent to be more "correct." Not a problem for me, though: this is the first student to express such a preference, and she is far outnumbered by students who specifically request an American accent for their instructors.
Paul   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 06:46 GMT
I feel a little bit misunderstood here. I was specifically talking about websites that don't use British English even though it would be appropriate.
These kind of websites are on the rise.
Another example: There is a new portal called Mozilla Europe. It's a European portal, localised in 15 European languages. However, the English version links to the U.S. downloads. If you want to download the UK version Firefox from Mozilla Europe... it's impossible.
You can NOT download a UK English version from the European site, so you have to go to the AMERICAN site (www.mozilla.org) to download the UK version. This doesn't make any sense. It shows tha the Mozilla Europe webmasters don't really care about UK English.
Kirk   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 07:14 GMT
Yeah, but, Paul, most of the differences you're talking about are purely written. The written language is not the real language, but is a very abstract representation of it. "UK English" and "US English" are not defined by its spelling--those are trivial stylistic concerns. I, as an American, have no problem with reading British spellings (also note that the vast majority of English words are spelled exactly the same in UK and US orthography) and don't insist on there being an American-speliing version of every text I ever read. I'm also not in the least insulted when some websites, when they have links to the English versions of their websites, show a UK flag and/or use British spelling (even if their web audience is mostly American). Who cares? I believe most native English speakers couldn't care less, either.

Not to be picky, but if you read your following statement again, you might realize the oxymorons you've created:

<<Does Google really think that British English is only used in the UK and Australia and that all the other countries use U.S. English?>>

British English is, by definition, used in the UK. Australians speak Australian English, not British English, etc. If by linking spelling with the actual spoken language (which you seem to be doing in that statement) your argument especially doesn't hold up because there can be huge pronunciation differences within, say, the UK--even with people who would write exactly the same (you could say the same for US English). Stylistic differences simply may not be paired up with actual varietal differences as if "UK English" and "US English" were homogenous blobs with clear-cut boundaries.

Many other of the posters are confusing spelling differences (which usually *don't* indicate pronunciation differences, which are far more salient in any linguistic analysis of dialectal differences) and pronunciation differences, as well.

<<people look down at Americanised English or accents here in Europe…

American English it’s just easier, a more simplified spelling and grammar, being adopted by some “Lazy” Europeans who dislike “the posh” English or RP.>>

That's a linguistically invalid statement, as has already been discussed by Travis.
Bob   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 07:32 GMT
"Yeah, but, Paul, most of the differences you're talking about are purely written. The written language is not the real language, but is a very abstract representation of it."

Well, yes, Paul was initially talking about the written language, not the spoken or pronunciation issues. The written language is very real in its own right since we can identify the differences being discussed. If British writers adopted American spellings universally, in the media, on billboards, etc, there would be no British spellings to speak of. His point is valid even if the instances he described were isolated or few.
Louis   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 08:01 GMT
I have a question for americans or Canadians here. When your teacher asks you to pull up your socks, do you have any idea what he means by saying that? Would you literally do as he's asked or would you recognise it as an idiomatic expression for rolling up your sleeves (oops- another idiomatic gaffe here).

I have a friend who's from Ohio and he was genuinely gobsmacked at such an expression. That sparked a sense of curiosity in me that had me asking if this particular idiom is intrinsically foreign in North America.
mjd   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 08:06 GMT
It's not a common idiom here in the U.S. "Roll up your sleeves," however, is very common.
Trevor   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 09:40 GMT
Riko:
"It would be nice if in the UK they adopted U.S. english language and norms, so that there would be a standard in spelling, grammar, etc."

I don't think so...
That statement is outrageous.
Kirk   Saturday, May 28, 2005, 10:40 GMT
I have a question for americans or Canadians here. When your teacher asks you to pull up your socks, do you have any idea what he means by saying that? Would you literally do as he's asked or would you recognise it as an idiomatic expression for rolling up your sleeves (oops- another idiomatic gaffe here).

I don't know what "pull up your socks" means idiomatically. If someone asked me to do that I'd assume they literally meant for me to physically pull up my socks (a funny concept in and of itself because socks are almost are a rare occurrence in my life as I almost never wear them--most people my age here in San Diego and many other parts of California just wear open-toed sandals all the time..I've even worn nice clothes and sandals to the opera here...haha).