England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
--George Bernard Shaw
" The Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course, language."
Oscar Wilde
We Americans mean well... we really do. However, we mess up a great deal. We assume, because we are made up of so many peoples, that have somehow managed to get along more or less well - and willing to embrace a few common values and principles, while ignoring a lot of differences, that all others we come in contact with should wish to become like us.
Well... they don't and as a people, we just don't get that, and without meaning to, we offend in small ways and big ones, too. The world forgives us, because when it gets itself into horrible trouble, we have a tendancy to drop what we are doing and send help - money, soldiers, more money and sadly, buckets of blood. It's something of a debt we feel we owe the world for both what we have and for our own mistakes. Americans have this sense of guilt, remorse and regret in many ways - look at how we carve one another up - even here.
It used to be that our young people ignored the differences in spelling between the Brits and ourselves - mostly due to the fact that English is a very difficult language to spell well, and frankly, we're terrible at it. One was never quite certain if one was ever getting it right. MS Word, the web and a lot else doesn't seem to help us much.
I got very lucky, and very early in life, learned just how special other people were - especially the British people. We owe them about all we are. Hundreds of years before we could spell much at all, they were at least trying to get things right. I think America owes them more than we could ever repay - they are, after all, loyal to us even when we don't deserve it.
I recommend Americans visit, http://woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/langdiffer.htm
This post was edited by lketchum on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 22:02.
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