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us versus ukI have chosen this topic because it has meant a lot to me during the past few years. I am a native of Southern Spain where British tourism is very prevalent, so my english teachers in school taught me British english. Later in life I married a Texan and moved to the usa for thirteen years. Now I am back in the ?Costa del Sol?, working in a veterinary center where fifty percent of the clients are British. The research has taught me that most differences between British and American english come from the constant influence of foreign languages and cultures on both the U.S. and Britain, the gradual erosion of evolution of pronunciation, and the influence of new terminology from the scientific and artistic communities. This last being in my opinion the one with the biggest influence, since thanks to technology we have access to music and lyrics; films and tv shows anywhere at anytime. These differences are found in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. In grammar the most significant difference I have found is in the use of the present perfect, which is substituted often by the past simple in American english. While in Britain one would say : ? I?ve lost my wallet, Can you help me look for it??, in America they would say:?I lost my wallet. Can you help me look for it?? even if it is a recent action with present consequences. The past tense and past participle of some verbs can vary also in spelling, like learnt/learned although(200) in all the sources I searched both are accepted, one is more prevalent than the other, being the irregular form used mostly in Britain. The use of the future tense varies with the use of ?shall? mostly in the UK, like we study during the course, and the much more common use of the ?going to future? in American english. The spelling of certain words like those ending in ?-our? or ?-tre? as oppose to ??-or? and ?-ter? as in colour/color, and centre/center. Other small differences are found in grammar and punctuation, but the weight of the distinction between both english still is the uniqueness of the accents and the vocabulary. In this field I was surprised to see over 500 different words, not only so, but some of them with confusing meaning, like the first floor of a building not representing the same in both. I have found myself embarrassed by some of these ?bad friends?. Here is a list of them as an example: British english American english British english American english Pram stroller trousers pants Tram trolly car pants/knickers underwear Loo bathroom wellies rain boots Lorry truck zebra crossing cross-walk Dummy pacifier pavement sidewalk Nappy diapers panda car police car Boot trunk dust bin trash can Holiday vacation rubbish trash Tap faucet film movie Chemist drug store rubber eraser Skip dumpster crisps chips Chips fries biscuit cookie To be sick to vomit flat apartment After all this research I asked myself if they are truly that much apart, and after careful thinking and comparing to the ones that occur between the spanish speakers from both sides of the ocean, I must say ?no?. The vocabulary differences even among regions in Spain or different countries in South America are enormous, but still we claim to speak the same language. This is because there is one and only standard for all, the one given by the? Real Academia de la Lengua Española?, where speakers of all these countries dedicate the time to enrich the language with new terms and actualize the standard according to the times. In comparison, during my research I have constantly read that when it comes to english there is no right or wrong as long as you stick to one and don´t mix British english with American english. In my opinion this can make the differences even bigger and in the future they´ll truly be two languages. This brings me to ask myself a question: What are we to do as ESL teachers? The answer is unclear to me since I have been taught to expose the students to different accents. I will dedicate my time to teach them all the differences, enriching their vocabulary, and carefully letting them understand that they will have to choose which one to use according to the circumstances. This is no easy task at all! A dear teacher told me once that one who want to use the language wisely will learn to speak to the king as a king, to a peasant like a peasant, to a friend like a friend ad to your parent with respect. With my english I live this every day, going with my husband to the ?gas station? and telling our new clients the ?surgery is located opposite the petrol station?. In conclusion I hope that we can continue to enrich our vocabulary and that the language can evolve with the culture without being degraded and that english can continue to be one language with a lot of different and ?cool? accents.
