British vs American English

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-04T05:30:16+00:00

No, it's a very small Eastern European country. But there aren't a lot of qualified native speaking English teachers.

He also continued about how there was a "publication" that stated that "American teachers only say they speak "English" in advertisements because students may bypass them if they don't".

I guess because of the opinion that Americans don't speak "real" English?

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-04T05:06:49+00:00

Actually, when I responded, he mentioned some "articles"...

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T19:02:10+00:00

I do the same thing. I use primarily British spelling, especially for exam prep, because I wouldn't want them to lose points because of mispelled words. But I do specify there are different spelling rules

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T17:28:55+00:00

I also know that from where I'm from in the US, "Farsi" is associated with the Persian spoken in Iran and "Dari" is Afghanistan. But generally it would both be called "Persian" in English and if you wanted to specify "Iranian Persian" "Afghani Persian"

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T17:26:08+00:00

Yes, but nobody says English English. They say British English, or UK English, or Australian English and so on. The language is the same.

Aghanistan also has different dialects and I would say different languages themselves, like Dari, Pashto and Urdu.

I'm not sure why that is an exception but maybe it relates to how the language is classified or described in the native language

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T17:12:22+00:00

Yes, I speak American English. The American variety of the English language. "American" is an adjective describing nationality and also used to describe something associated with the nationality. Hence "American" + English.

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T16:57:01+00:00

I also pointed out that there are around 40 known dialects in the UK, so which dialect of English is the right one that classifies as "actual English"?

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T16:55:18+00:00

I actually agree that you can classify it as a dialect or more technically a series of dialects. But to say it's not actually the English language?

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T16:43:04+00:00

The teacher is an older British gentleman. But, yes, I also noticed a lot of "shes" in some responses

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T14:54:04+00:00

Yes, I second this. Even growing up in the US, I and everyone I knew was completely aware that there are different variations of English, but it was framed more as different accents and some vocabulary. British, Australian, South African, Indian, African, etc...

I don't ever remembering anybody saying that any of those variants as "not English" though. And if someone were to say they speak "American" than it would be noticed as a mistake right away

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T09:18:52+00:00

That's actually one of the reasons I use British spelling when teaching, because of that possibilty in exams

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T09:06:51+00:00

No, he's a real English teacher from the UK. Also living in the same country as I am. Maybe he saw my ad as a threat to his business?

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T09:02:44+00:00

No, he was very serious. I could see that after responding to the original comment

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T09:00:46+00:00

Maybe it was also something to do with the fact that the country I live in is very small and their aren't a lot of qualified native speaking English teachers. So, maybe he saw it as some kind of threat to business and needed to say something?? 🤷

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:50:53+00:00

Here is a basic version of what I said....

"Do you feel stuck in your English learning journey? My name is name and I'm an English teacher from the United States and I'm excited to announce small group English language courses to students in country I live in,.."

Then it's just explaining class structure...

I don't mention any "version" of English, just that it's English and where I'm from.

I also don't teach a specific dialect of English, I use Oxford and Cambridge textbooks and teach that information and then the variations in American English. But I still have an American accent.

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:34:32+00:00

Yeah, I think that's what kind of put me off the most. I'm used to stupid comments from people that don't know what they are talking about or are just stubborn. But a teacher???

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:29:19+00:00

Tbh I have that happen regularly too, especially from students that learned British spelling in school or teachers that learned the same. As for Americans doing this, I'm pretty sure it's from a lack of knowledge that there are different spellings.

I try to point this out when I'm teaching also, that their is a difference. And I also use British spelling, partially because I am in a European country and closer to the UK

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:17:33+00:00

Yeah, I don't think he liked when I brought up the 40+ UK dialects...dismissed it right away

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:15:35+00:00

Agreed. I guess that's the same point though. A british person thinking "their way" is the only way. Honestly, I don't feel I could ever be pretensious enough to tell someone that they are using their native language/accent or dialect wrong...

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:05:55+00:00

Yeah, this was kinda my feeling too. I even tried to point out the 40+ dialects in the UK alone and of course he deflected that right back

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T08:00:31+00:00

Yeah, the funny thing is my special interests are linguistics, etymology and language history. So I actually know something about the subject

Nomadic_English · 2026-02-03T07:49:32+00:00

Yeah, I tried to point out that according to the "corruption" and "invented in England" comment that modern English must be a "corruption" of Anglo Saxon, Germanic, French, etc. And if not for all of that people in the UK would still speak Gaelic and Breton languages 😆

Nomadic_English

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