Daryl McCullough wrote: > Robin Chapman says... > > >Torkel Franzen wrote: > > > >> Robin Chapman <rjc@ivorynospamtower.freeserve.co.uk> writes: > >> > >>> Is there any reason for a non-american to use american spellings? > >> > >> Is there any reason for a non-American to use British spelling? > > > >What is "British spelling"? I am not familiar with that term. > >Why change the subject anyway, which was about non-americans using > >americanisms instead of writing in standard English. > > Okay, fine. There is a variant of English that you call "standard > English", which other people call "British English". There is > another variant of English, "American English" that is used > in the US. > > Then the question is this: Is there any reason for a person > who is not a native speaker of English to learn the first > variant, rather than the second variant?
Since the US is the last remaining superpower and the UK is a washed-up "empire", I think it would most pragmatic for others to learn standard American English!!!
Darren
To me, it seems > purely a matter of pragmatics: is he more likely to be > conversing with people who use one variant, or the other? > I don't see how the fact that one variant is called > "standard English" has any relevance to the decision of > which variant to use. > > There are similar issues for all other languages. > For instance, Portuguese. The language used in Brazil is different > in some ways than the language used in Portugal. So if I'm learning > Portuguese, which variant should I learn? Well, if I'm more likely > to travel to Brazil than Portugal, then perhaps I'm better off > using the Brazilian variant. > > -- > Daryl McCullough > Ithaca, NY
