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So apparently the tool is slanted toward American English where the non-word practise is properly treated as a spelling error like colour. If you use these wor
by dreamcompiler 1y ago
So apparently the tool is slanted toward American English where the non-word practise is properly treated as a spelling error like colour.
If you use these words in writing for Americans and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth, you instantly mark yourself as arrogant.
- vintagedave 1y agoI'm interested in this - I am from the Commonwealth and I do use those words, including when I forget with American colleagues. It never occurred to me that this could ever be perceived as arrogant (even if only when referring to someone with a different background.) And I wouldn't have thought it would mean anything more than a certain language cosmopolitanism, lah ;) (Hope that joke comes through! It's been decades since I had much exposure to Malaysian English.) Can you explain why this might be, please?
- dreamcompiler 1y agoSpeaking for myself (an American), when I read published work that uses British spellings and I know the author is American, it feels to me that the author thinks American spellings are somehow vulgar or improper and he/she is trying to rise above our shameful misspellings. British Commonwealth authors (well, really any author I know to be not from the USA) get a pass because these are the spellings they were taught. Nothing wrong with that. This is a phenomenon I've only noticed in the last two decades or so. I don't know if American students are now being (wrongly) taught British spellings in school or they merely think their writing will carry more weight if it has a British "accent" but it just seems arrogant to me. The OED is a useful resource but it is not our dictionary of final arbitration. Americans should use the American Heritage Dictionary.
- apaprocki 1y agoI do not think you should ever feel that way. If any English-speaking listener has an issue with another speaking the dialect of English they were raised with, the listener has an issue with themselves they need to work through. As an American English speaker, I have in the past used UK spellings when communicating at work with a group that I know only contains British English recipients. There is nothing wrong with that -- anything that makes communication more fluid should be welcome. I believe the arrogance angle exists in a situation where an American English speaker with no British English education is using British spellings when communicating with other _American English_ speakers to purposefully create an air of superiority. If you do this, even if no one says anything, they definitely notice. For other English dialects, my personal take is that most Americans (at least the ones who travel or interact with foreigners personally or at work) will assume they either are or are heavily influenced by British English due to history.
- Forgeties79 1y agoI have always been "aware" of the concept that they can be perceived as arrogant, but really only "colour" - it sounds kind of deliberate and like some attempt to sound "fancy," like enunciating "theater" as "thee-AY-tour" But even so, I usually see it as a humorous thing. The person is purposely trying to sound over the top arrogant/refined as a joke. I've never actually read "british" spellings and gone "what an ass." I usually assume that's how they write or it's a joke.
- butshouldyou 1y agoHuge quantities of english speakers, who are not from the Commonwealth, learn British English.
- xwolfi 1y agoWe learn both, tbh... And then get confused all our life, it's not like we choose one style in school, school teaches us that English actually has two dominant spellings and here is the American, here is the British and deal with it. Non-native English speakers don't learn English exactly the same way as natives learning from their parents.
- beAbU 1y ago> and you are not a citizen of the British Commonwealth What do you regard as the British Commonwealth, and what variant of English spelling to you expect people to use who are not part of this grouping? Just so that you know, in case you don't, "US English" is used just about exclusively in the US, and UK English is used in most of the rest of the world, despite the fact that most of our devices incorrectly default to US English.
- dkga 1y agoI work at an international organisation, and can confirm. My understanding is that is that at the international level, only the US-based international organisations use US English. To be sure, I don‘t have any dog in this fight, just highlighting a fact from my experience that many here might not know.
- beAbU 1y agoThis is my approach/experience as well, hence my comment and question to the previous poster.
- TeMPOraL 1y agoThat sounds surprising. As an European, I thought that UK only thinks their English is the dominant one, because it's the one officially taught everywhere. Meanwhile, the reality is, people learn English primarily from Hollywood and MTV; music, video, television and computer games are both the primary exposure and the main reason for people to pick English up, and they're almost all in US English. Secondarily, computers - the OS, software, SaaS - all of that is either in US English or localized to wherever the users live, and even then the US English version is usually better. Nobody actually uses UK English here, except for English teachers. Computers don't. TV doesn't. Corporate jobs don't. And so regular people don't either.
- beAbU 1y agoWhere is "here"?
- JLCarveth 1y agoAmericans finding anyone else arrogant is quite rich.
- malfist 1y agoThat's a mighty broad brush you're painting with
- BoredPositron 1y agoI guess it's more of a shit throwing contest than an artistic practice.
- TeMPOraL 1y agoIn the real world, it boils down to a game of "count the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers".
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- anotherevan 1y agoThat's very colorful[sic] thinking.
- cjs_ac 1y agoInteresting - I'd heard of American Gen Zs using theatre to mean the art form, to distinguish it from just meaning a building, but I hadn't heard of British English being considered a more prestigious register than American English. Is this a new phenomenon?
- Onawa 1y agoI don't think OP meant "arrogant" in terms of more prestigious, but in the sense of any native US-English speaker using British English spellings as a way to seem fancier or more formal. Non-native US-English speakers are not viewed in the same light (in my opinion).
- ghaff 1y agoI find there are a few specific Britishisms (like theatre) that don't really raise an eyebrow in the US and maybe can seem a bit more upper-class. Grey vs. gray are essentially interchangeable. Toward vs. towards is another.
- limagnolia 1y agoIt gives off arrogant vibes to have one accuse Americans of being arrogant for using alternative spellings.
- speedgoose 1y agoAs a Frenchman, I enjoy writing colour and being arrogant.
- groby_b 1y agoCome on, write couleur and let them eat cake ;)
- xwolfi 1y agoQuelle que soit la facon dont ils ecrivent, ce sera toujours une faute d'orthographe, puisque la seule vraie facon d'ecrire serait couleur. L'anglais, americain ou britannique, n'est qu'une geante faute d'orthographe du francais.
- stronglikedan 1y ago> you instantly mark yourself as arrogant. That is simply not true. Maybe that's how you feel about it, but it is generally not the case (or even considered, really).
- BrandoElFollito 1y agoI learned colour at school in France.
- xwolfi 1y agoI learned that both exist in school in France. It doesn't matter, I write both interchangeably and nobody ever cared nor corrected me.
- BrandoElFollito 1y agoYes, we also had lessons about the differences between BE and AE so we are aware of both, it is just that when Brian was in the kitchen, he was asking about the colour of something. The reference to Brian being in the kitchen is understandable only for Gen X in France. (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_is_Brian%3F https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_is_Brian%3F, only in French unfortunately but you also have https://youtu.be/11jG7lkwDwU?si=gQoVL_AmBfQMrZbX&t=57 https://youtu.be/11jG7lkwDwU?si=gQoVL_AmBfQMrZbX&t=57)
- xwolfi 1y agoNot "only" come on, I'm a little bit younger and I know it too ahah You even linked a youtube video, which I assume is the sketch in question (at work, no youtube): we can look at things from the past and learn them too !
- BrandoElFollito 1y agoActually I posted my comment about who can understand it before adding the Wikipedia link, where I learned that Gad Elmaleh did a sketch about that (where a lot of people post GenX presumably learned about the expression).