British or
American Version of English 3/11/2017
In my homeland, Sarawak or elsewhere in
the Federation of Malaysia, the first question I think everybody should ask
everybody is that which version of English we are studying. It is said that we follow the British system
of English. However, batches and batches of American English teaching
assistants have been sent to us under the Fulbright programme. What are our political scoundrels doing?
Which system to follow, I think, is very
important for our students who needs the set forms and rules to follow first
before exposing them to other variations of English. Otherwise, they will be so much confusion and
frustration. It is so important for our students to learn
the forms and their functions firmly in one system first. For example, the words:
British Forms American Forms
centre center
fibre fiber
litre liter
theatre theater
colour color
flavour flavour
humour humor
labour labor
humour humor
neighour neighbor
apologise apologize
organise organize
recognise recognize
analyse analyze
paralyse paralyze
travel travel
travelling traveling
travelled travelled
traveller travelled
quarrel quarrel
quarrelling quarrelling
quarrelled quarrelled
fuel fuel
fuelling fueling
fuelled fuelled
(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/spelling/british-and-spelling)
American English is ubiquitous and our
computer, I think, also has both the American hardware and software. Thus, the British English words are changed
into the American version automatically.
I often have to change it back to
the British version whenever I am aware of it.
It is terrible!
No comments:
Post a Comment