American English Professor hates British English

[meticadpa]

I'm just looking at all the british people in the thread here going "By Jove what a tosser, english is the TRUE language and he's a bloody bellend for making you write anything else. Now if you'll excuse me i'm off to get my tea, pip pip cheerio and all that."

Funny.

Hahahaha!

That's hilarious.

 

[Woodsey]

AMERICAN English professor...

He's kinda got a point.

A general English professor wouldn't have any grounds for complaint, though.

I thought he was just saying that he is American, as opposed to teaching American-English.

OT: English English is English.

 

[YouBecame]

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?

There arn't a huge amount of differences I thought? Though I get sort of the reverse; being British, typing in English English (as opposed to American English) seems to make any computer think I have an unnatural affinity for the letter u (think: Honour, valour, misdemeanour etc). Oh and except for the word Zoo I don't think I have many uses for Z >_>

 

[crimson5pheonix]

It happens. If this is a college class, I'm afraid you'll just have to go with it.

 

[Berethond]

"We don't use British grammar here."

I wasn't aware there was much of a difference except for a few extra words and a few different spellings?

There's some punctuation differences, too.

Such as?

He gave me a bit of a lecture on how quotations are used and how they relate to other punctuation. Apparently, Americans think it's right to always stick punctuation inside the quote, without exception. According to him, that's not always the case for British English.

Personally, I'd like both sides to be consistent. It's the same fucking language, for Christ's sake.

So you put ". instead of ." ?
The first is wrong in both Britain and America, it's a form of slang mostly used by computer programmers, as it's more logical and in programming the two mean very different things.

 

[Stoplesteimer]

Whoa whoa whoa, if you are in an american english class and he is teaching you american english grammar then you damn well better use the grammar he is teaching you.

It's like if you were in a spanish class and were confused why the teacher was mad at you for speaking italian, sure they are similar languages but you are not in a spanish class to learn italian.

 

[Dags90]

If you're in america, use american english. I'm an english graduate and this seems pretty logical.

And similar to the Oxford comma, most academics would require consistency. The only thing that both sides of the issue would agree on is that you aren't allowed to decide when to use it arbitrarily. Because there needs to be rules, clarity be damned!

 

[Lt.Snuffles]

I'm just looking at all the british people in the thread here going "By Jove what a tosser, english is the TRUE language and he's a bloody bellend for making you write anything else. Now if you'll excuse me i'm off to get my tea, pip pip cheerio and all that."

Funny.

I would reply with an equally hilarious imitation of the American stereotype, but it seems to obvious and for some reason I'll probably get suspended.

OT: If you can't beat 'em, come to the United Kingdom, or another part of the world which speaks the Queen's English.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

AMERICAN English professor...

He's kinda got a point.

A general English professor wouldn't have any grounds for complaint, though.

I thought he was just saying that he is American, as opposed to teaching American-English.

OT: English English is English.

This is English English.

 

[Naheal]

"We don't use British grammar here."

I wasn't aware there was much of a difference except for a few extra words and a few different spellings?

There's some punctuation differences, too.

Such as?

He gave me a bit of a lecture on how quotations are used and how they relate to other punctuation. Apparently, Americans think it's right to always stick punctuation inside the quote, without exception. According to him, that's not always the case for British English.

Personally, I'd like both sides to be consistent. It's the same fucking language, for Christ's sake.

So you put ". instead of ." ?
The first is wrong in both Britain and America, it's a form of slang mostly used by computer programmers, as it's more logical and in programming the two mean very different things.

Ok, then why was the comment about British English rather than "It's a general punctuation error?"

 

[Lyri]

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, yes.

 

[emeraldrafael]

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 can see where you are coming from. I'm american, but I like to spell words that end in -or as -our just to be different. And a teacher marked me wrong everytime and said I misspelled words. There are distinct differences in the two languages, so mabye you're professor just wnats consistency.

 

[Dimensional Vortex]

He would not like me. I mix British in with a bit of fake German (like saying ze instead of the, and mein instead of my).

lol that can't work out to well.

It has rarely happened to me, only when I read a word in an American book and then use it on my school work and my teacher comes along and helps correct me. Examples are the word: Color and meter.

 

[Stoic raptor]

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, yes.

Thought I would use the wrong grammar, did you not?

 

[Berethond]

"We don't use British grammar here."

I wasn't aware there was much of a difference except for a few extra words and a few different spellings?

There's some punctuation differences, too.

Such as?

He gave me a bit of a lecture on how quotations are used and how they relate to other punctuation. Apparently, Americans think it's right to always stick punctuation inside the quote, without exception. According to him, that's not always the case for British English.

Personally, I'd like both sides to be consistent. It's the same fucking language, for Christ's sake.

So you put ". instead of ." ?
The first is wrong in both Britain and America, it's a form of slang mostly used by computer programmers, as it's more logical and in programming the two mean very different things.

Ok, then why was the comment about British English rather than "It's a general punctuation error?"

No idea.

 

[Riobux]

I will admit that it makes sense for him to get annoyed, after all you are in America and American English is spoken there. It's just national pride. It's like how I'd poke fun at least if someone in England missed out their "u"s or put "z"s instead of "s"s.

However, I have to admit, British English is a lot better.

 

[Wicky_42]

"We don't use British grammar here."

I wasn't aware there was much of a difference except for a few extra words and a few different spellings?

There's some punctuation differences, too.

Such as?

He gave me a bit of a lecture on how quotations are used and how they relate to other punctuation. Apparently, Americans think it's right to always stick punctuation inside the quote, without exception. According to him, that's not always the case for British English.

Personally, I'd like both sides to be consistent. It's the same fucking language, for Christ's sake.

I thought punctuation from a quote does indeed go within a quote, though I've always been a bit flexible when I'm using quoted text as part of a sentence (ie., if the quote ends with a full stop but I'd much rather throw a comma after).

I guess it's a good thing I'm not writing an English paper... in any proprietary version!

[PS, throw some "zeees" in there - I hear you yanks like them, it's sure to cheer him up ]

 

[Merkavar]

my understanding is that the differences are small between english english and american english

like z instead of s in some words like ogranisation

and like mom and mum.

Nothing to get worked up over

Can you give some examples from your essay of what he had issue with? if you have already done that can you send me some money so i can go to thread reading school cause i missed it.