1. A No-Nonsense American
For a long time I have been yearning to get this gripe of mine off my chest. Where I live in the United States, I haven't encountered all that many Brits here and there. However, on the Internet, they are everywhere.
Now, I'm not looking to wage war against any Brits or disparage the British people as a whole. However, I cannot keep quiet about this concern of mine any longer.
While I was watching the national news on my television set, they showed a whole host of interviews by an American journalist with British people. Their main complaint was that Americans frequently ended their sentences in prepositions and it confused them when they were communicating with us.
What was so strange about those interviews was that I have heard British people end their sentences in prepositions. Then why were these people bickering and complaining?
A number of Americans I know who have been to England have told me how British people nitpick at their English usage. They corrected their English too. I responded that Americans never act that way with them when they are visiting our nation, and we wouldn't expect them to behave that way with us.
Afterwards, I once told this one Hispanic co-worker of mine named Manuel that he had to expect British people to correct his English. I added that it was better not to talk with them, if they're going to be that way.
A Mexican co-worker of mine named Guadalupe told me and Manuel that she had lived in England for a substantial period of years and that the British people simply could not help the way they were. I responded to her that they could do so if they genuinely put their minds to it. I added that the entire world did not have to cater to their expectations and desires.
The fact of the matter is that when it comes to British people, we, Americans, don't want to be them, and they don't want to be us. There's no other way of looking at it. They don't speak or write better English than us, because their illiteracy rate is higher than ours. You heard it. Our illiteracy rate here in the United States sits at 14 percent and the British illiteracy rate sits at 16 percent.
Now, if any of you British people reading this article here of mine wish to come to the United States, we're more than happy to receive you. However, if you're going to come over here to torment us about the way we speak and write English, then don't come over here at all. In that event, we don't want you.
If we, Americans, wish to learn how to speak and write English exactly as the British do, then we'll enroll at Oxford University over in England. Otherwise, put a sock in it, Brits. We don't wish to change a thing about ourselves, and we pride ourselves on how we speak and write English.
I admit that Americans don't all talk and write English the same way. Considering that the United States is a big country, there are bound to be variations in the way Americans speak and write English. However, I think that there is one thing that all Americans can agree upon. We don't want to sound like Piers Morgan or Jeremy Kyle whenever we open our mouths. Those men have a mean streak in their respective tones of voice.
2. No Hostility Intended Against British People
If you're a British tourist travelling to New York City and you want to go into a bar there, there is one thing that you must not do no matter how you feel about it. Do not walk up to anyone at the bar and start correcting their English. When I lived in New York City, I heard horror stories about British men getting beaten up for doing so.
New Yorkers are proud of who they are. They don't want some clone of Colin Firth or Jude Law walking up to them at a bar and giving them a lesson on how to speak perfect European English. Assimilate to Americans as much as you can after you take that first step off an airplane onto American soil, especially if you're coming here to live.
Now, I don't doubt that you British people have misgivings about the American way of life. We, Americans, have our fair share of such about the British way of life. In any event, there must be an understanding between both cultures if we are all to coexist in this world.
Some of you British people may be furious over the fact that your nation had to keep paying off the debt you owed to the United States pertaining to World War II up until 2015. Well, that's gone and done with and should be laid to rest.
Some of you British people may feel sore about losing two wars against the United States (The Revolutionary War and the War of 1812). Well, it's time that you live in the present and forget about the distant past. Also, remember. Those were your ancestors who fought in those two wars rather than you.
You may even be asking whether some British person did something to get me angry. Well, I won't completely deny it. I did experience a recent ordeal with one.
What you British people could never understand is the fact that American government officials are tyrannical about certain situations over which they have control, whereas in the United Kingdom, it appears that government officials will bend forwards, backwards, and sideways for you British people in identical situations. We don't appreciate you British people getting up on your moral high horses about anything involving the American criminal justice system.
Because American government officials are not as protective of individual rights here in the United States as British government officials are of individual rights in the United Kingdom, you British people could never understand the hardships that Americans endure in dealing with our overly zealous law-enforcement officials and the punks that back up their arrest tactics.
In any event, if you're British, don't pretend that you understand our situation as Americans, because you don't and you could never do so unless you've lived in the United States for a substantial period of time.
I'm not here to make enemies with any British person, but to bring about an understanding with any of you who may be British. We, Americans, don't want to be different from who we are.
3. No Apologies From Americans
Yes, Americans like to end their sentences in prepositions. American grammarians even gave us the green light to do so.
Yes, Americans like to speak in the passive rather than the active. If I want to use the word "by" in a number of sentences, I'm going to do so with or without any British person's permission.
Yes, Americans like to use the word "ain't." It's how we speak. In the southern part of our nation, we like to use the contraction "y'all." What's wrong with that?
American English was never meant to be anything like British English. American scholars will even tell you so. If all these elderly British women who speak in a high-pitched voice were American, they would all sound like Aunt Bee on reruns of The Andy Griffith Show.
My maternal great-grandparents were born in England. However, I was born in the United States. Therefore, you might hear a word or two coming out of my mouth that is a British colloquialism, but the kind of English I speak and write overall is American.
If you're an American, go ahead and end your sentences in prepositions. Go ahead and put your sentences in the passive. Use all those verbal peculiarities that Americans frequently use. That's all a part of being American. No English-speaking country can rightfully say that only they have the correct English, and Americans owe no apologies for the way they write and talk.
4. Final Thoughts
Most Americans have at least some British in their ancestry. Even those of you Americans who don't have British in your ancestry, you're still Americans; and American English is what you should use to write and speak.
I once saw a discussion thread on YouTube in which a British woman complained about the way of life in the United States. A whole host of Americans replied to her that nothing was holding her back here in the United States and that she was free to leave whenever she pleased.
British people? Criticizing us Americans is not going to win our hearts over. Don't even as so much snipe at our punctuation in our writings. We don't appreciate grammar lessons from anyone who is not from our nation.
Everyone? When visiting other people's nations, respect their customs and their ways of communicating. The same rule should apply if you're in another nation where your tongue is spoken, but spoken in a different manner. Nobody is better than anyone else.
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