UK: Britishisms and the Britishisation of American English

Britishisms and the Britishisation of American English

There is little that irks British defenders of the English language more than Americanisms, which they see creeping insidiously into newspaper columns and everyday conversation. But bit by bit British English is invading America too.

I haven't read the article yet, but language is an organic thing, it evolves and changes and sometimes even dies out completely.

On a somewhat related note, my manager was not allowed to watch Sesame Street (she's 40 something, so this is a long time ago) because her parents said it was too American and would teach her incorrect things that weren't 'proper English'.

A bit silly to me as it's mostly just big fuzzy monsters frogs and pigs and things having fun with kids and learning to count in Spanish.  A shame she missed out on it.

My best friend in Scotland is STILL traumatised because she learned to write by watching Sesame Street and you're doing it wrong.  The US starts at the bottom with the letters and the UK at the top (or reserved, whatever) and she was yelled at in primary school.

Also, I saw the BBC interviewing some people who wrote a grammar book this morning and the presenters were complaining about Americanisms.  I had never heard of what he was complaining about. 

Just because an America says it, doesn't make it an Americanism. 

And just because the authors asked how he would spell "whose" in a particular sentence and he spelled it who'se (?) and his co-presenter spelled it who's doesn't mean that every British person doesn't know how to use an apostrophe.

But complaining that things are American makes it easy.

The US starts at the bottom with the letters and the UK at the top (or reserved, whatever) and she was yelled at in primary school.

I have no memory of this at all!  As long as the final product is neat and readable it doesn't seem it should matter which way the letter was drawn.

I have no memory of this at all!

I don't remember this either... but i could write before i went to school, so probably didn't take too much notice of their teaching methods.  Also, it was small cow-town SoCal schools, so... I took all my learning from there with a pinch of salt.    

(I just watched myself write something, to see how my handwriting naturally flowed... I did it from the top down. >shrug< )

It could be the US does top down, I'd call her and ask but I don't want to start a crying jag this early in the morning. 

One of my niece's school wanted them to print all the letters with the links for joined up writing, but not actually joined, from the beginning of writing. So her printing was always "incorrect".  That is one of the reasons she no longer goes to that school.

One of my niece's school wanted them to print all the letters with the links for joined up writing, but not actually joined, from the beginning of writing. So her printing was always "incorrect".  That is one of the reasons she no longer goes to that school.

Sounds whacky. 

I do from top down as well, that must be the US way.