Teach English in Ningyuan Jiedao - Tianjin

British english vs. American english It was the handy spell-checker on my computer that first sparked this obsession. My computer and I were forever battling. The computer insisted on automatically changing my correctly spelt words into their incorrect American spelling. I was forever protesting about the erroneous use of ?z? and the lack of ?u.s.in American english, and chuckling with my friends about strange words such as ?sidewalk? instead of ?path? and ?faucet? in place of ?tap?. I was of the opinion that British english was right, and American english was wrong. That is until I started to travel outside the UK, and finally settled in Bangkok, thailand. I slowly started to realise that American english appeared to be the international english used by non-native english speakers around the world. (This observation however excludes India, where the form of old-fashioned and often long forgotten english words they use there radiate a kind of decorum and formality that is both gratifying and charming in equal proportion, as deliberated by Paul Theroux in The Elephanta Suite. These words are likely to have been brought to India during the British colonisation, and left behind when British rule departed.) In Bangkok I noticed that many of my english speaking Thai friends spoke with American accents, and those who didn?t have the accent had a largely American vocabulary, favouring words such as ?pants? instead of ?trousers? and ?highway? instead of ?motorway?. This phenomenon amused and intrigued me, and motivated me to probe my friends for reasons why. Many of the english speaking Thai people I have met went to international schools, and were taught by American teachers, but not all of them. Many more of them tell me that they learnt much of their language from the media, movies, T.V., the internet, music and books. Many Europeans that I met on my travels around the got very excited when they heard a native english accent, and I have been asked to coach them in the British accent, in order to help them to shake off their unwanted American accents. I found this very interesting, and it only added fuel to my ?British english is correct? fire. While reading Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, however, I stumbled across a nugget of information that changed my line of thought. In Mother Tongue, Bryson studies the origins of the english language, and demonstrates that the ?proper? english that I so fervently believed in does not actually exist. Bryson details how the english language has developed over many hundreds of years, with the input, sometimes intentionally sometimes through natural development and evolution of the language, from many other languages, both ancient and modern. Furthermore, english still continues to develop today, and as such is an ever evolving organic structure that will never be ?complete?. Bryson also indicates that American english is likely to be a more ?proper? version of the language than the British english spoken today. He goes on to suggest that American english currently uses vocabulary, grammar and spelling much more similar to the language introduced to the united states during British colonisation in the 1600s, than the British english currently used in the UK. Similar to the english spoken in India, American english seems to have remained unchanged over the years, whereas British english has developed, adapted and evolved dramatically in that time. That certainly shut me up! During this TEFL course this issue of British english vs. American english has been raised in my mind again. I have been asking myself, and others, whether teaching American or British english is best. There does not seem to be a straight answer. Due to the growth of english as a global language and the numerous different accents with which it is spoken, it is important for students of the english language to be exposed to as many different english accents as possible in order to give them the best possible chance at comprehension in any situation that they are likely to face. Regarding the students? accents, I think they will develop their own individual variations on the accent, and I will endeavour to teach them to be as clear as possible when speaking english, no matter what kind of ?twang? they have. As long as they can understand others, and be understood, they will be successful in english.