American English Professor hates British English

[silentrob77]

I wish I were joking. I'm apparently beginning to blend some bits of American grammar with British grammar... and he hates it. I got a paper that I wrote back today with marks all over the damned thing with one large comment down at the bottom:

"We don't use British grammar here."

It's strange. You'd think that the English... know a thing or two about the English language.

Any other Escapists have experiences like this?

I know EXACTLY what you mean!
I had to attend high school in the states and being from Canada we tend to lean more toward British English (being a commonwealth and all). I actually had one of the teachers (who was passionate about English lit) to defend me against the whole English department who chastized me for it.

The thing that bugged me the most was the word "colour"...
It's not and should never be spelled "color" or if it is should be pronounced how it's written, "ko-lor"

 

[BlumiereBleck]

1....it's color, 2. we speak AMERICAN! > Also if youre in America...try to learn our customs, dont be xenophobic now!

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

Report him to his boss. Go over his head. Make his life miserable.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

"But I don't wanna speak American English, you guys are mean and cruel to the silent 'u', what did 'colour' ever do to you?"

 

[Purple Shrimp]

He's completely justified in wanting you to use language specific to your country, although he could have been less rude about it I guess

 

[Asuka Soryu]

1....it's color, 2. we speak AMERICAN! > Also if youre in America...try to learn our customs, dont be xenophobic now!

This... is... AMERICA! (kicks textbook into a pit)

 

[Purple Shrimp]

I wish I were joking. I'm apparently beginning to blend some bits of American grammar with British grammar... and he hates it. I got a paper that I wrote back today with marks all over the damned thing with one large comment down at the bottom:

"We don't use British grammar here."

It's strange. You'd think that the English... know a thing or two about the English language.

Any other Escapists have experiences like this?

Well, tell him when Americans can spell 'Colour' right then you can take the time to learn American Grammar. :3

I should also point out that while "color" is not the original way the word was spelled, it's perhaps a more correct spelling as it's based on Latin roots rather than French

edit: I'm Australian so don't think I'm just trying to defend my own spelling of the word

 

[nick_knack]

I wish I were joking. I'm apparently beginning to blend some bits of American grammar with British grammar... and he hates it. I got a paper that I wrote back today with marks all over the damned thing with one large comment down at the bottom:

"We don't use British grammar here."

It's strange. You'd think that the English... know a thing or two about the English language.

Any other Escapists have experiences like this?

Your in America being taught by an American English teacher.

So why would you use British grammar. Maybe if you're with friends or in Britain, but not in a academic paper!
Yes it sounded wrong, but your supposed to use proper grammar.

You're also supposed to use your words correctly and not make basic mistakes!

 

[sageoftruth]

He should watch/read My Fair Lady. Then he can go about saying, "Why can't the English learn to speak?"

 

[Bernzz]

To be fair, during education in Australia, if American spelling was ever used it would be counted as a misspelling. To use my own opinion, I agree with that policy. When compared to favourite, or colour, favorite and color just look wrong to me.

But hey, that's what I grew up with.

 

[Ruley]

with regards to this topic, i'm more outraged with the scientific misspellings and mispronunciations of the periodic table. Surely something such as this (a scientific constant in every culture) should remain the same in both (so called) American English and British English.

For Starters, lets take the spelling of Sulphur. Yes, that's PH in the middle and is the established spelling. But the American spelling is Sulfur, much much lazier in my opinion and it is now being accepted here in British schools. I find this offensive and unacceptable and just shows how standards are slipping!!

Secondly, we turn to Aluminium. Pronounced: A-lu-min-ee-um. But often Americans pronounce it: A-lu-min-um. Why? It is so hard to stress the extra syllables?

So why in an area where, in whatever variation of the English language used, these things are considered constant and unchanging, does one see fit to change spellings and pronunciations of words??


another thing that's always nagged me is colour and color. Yet again, strikes me as lazy to remove a single letter to define it as a new spelling.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

Ha ha ha. The British people in this thread are hilarious, but they also make me want to kick them off their high-horse. Look, I'm sorry if you believe Americans use a bastardized version of your already bastardized language that you didn't even invent, but get over yourselves.

 

[trollnystan]

The entire thread was TL;DR for me, but I thought I'd join in. Apologies if I repeat what someone else already said =)

I have friends who grew up in America who then spent their teens here in Sweden and they seemed to constantly get into trouble from their teachers for using American spelling AND pronunciation. Seems incredibly silly to me. I use the British spelling myself, but I plead guilty for using double quotations ("") instead of single ones the Brits use (''). The way the Swedish keyboard is set up I find it easier (not that I have much experience with an English standard keyboard).

I also put the full stop on the INSIDE when writing conversations. It makes more sense in my head. Then again I never did learn much proper grammar growing up; MY English teachers let me do whatever I wanted really, English being my mother tongue and all. When one of them started asking for my advice on grammar and sentence structure, etc., I stopped going to class =/

My (humble) opinion is that they are both, essentially, correct. You should probably try to stick to one or the other to avoid confusion, but in the end language is ever-evolving; we don't speak English in the same way people did 150 years ago, and those people didn't speak English the same way they spoke it 150 years before that. Heck, most of what started out as Americanisms in the 1800's are now considered British and vice-versa. What with globalisation who knows how people will be spelling or pronouncing 100 years from now?

Chill out y'all BD *fades back into lurkermode*

 

[Latinidiot]

Our english teachers (I live in Holland) promote but one rule on that: Be consequent. Don't mix the two up. Use either British or Degenerate(I'm joking here).

I prefer British. It's closer to us.

 

[Geekosaurus]

If he doesn't like it then we'll have our language back.