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i could go on all day, but this is the item bugging me at the moment
My Fellow Americans:
Please don't spell color and other such words with a 'u' -- colour -- because you think it makes you look smarter, differently educated, more cultured, richer, or any of that. It doesn't. British and US English have different ways of spelling things and that's okay. If you use colour and honour and whatnot and say "oh, that's how I learned to spell it, I can't spell it the other way", you are exposing yourself as little better than ignorant. Of course you can spell it the other way. You know how I usually type all in lowercase around here, capitalizing only in instances of special emphasis, Pooh-style? It's not because that's how I learned to type and I can't use the shift key, yo. It's a choice I'm making -- just, I submit, as you are making a choice to spell flavor with an extra letter that doesn't have any place in the written representation of your dialect.
Which -- okay, choices are choices, and I should back up a step and admit that your choices are your own and you do your own thing. I'm sure the fact that I don't customarily use capital letters (although I do spell things correctly, eschew netspeak, use punctuation, and so on) must cause some people to think of me as ignorant or selfish or pretentious or a variety of other things. But I want you to be aware that your habit of spelling things in the British style makes some of us -- me, at any rate -- think you are aiming for a level of haughtiness you can't quite reach. It's the written equivalent of a really bad imitation of an accent. If you write colour but not centre, I mean to say, the game is up. You're exposed. (I give special dispensation for theatre, because I -- and I know there are others like me -- make a distinction between theatre and theater.) If you don't know a license from a licence, or spell organization with an 's', or eat biscuits instead of cookies, or recycle aluminium instead of aluminum, etc., etc., etc., then for the love of god get the 'u' out of color.
Because the thing is this: there's nothing wrong with American English. Nobody looks smarter or more cultured or any of those things I mentioned up top for spelling things in the British style, because there is nothing inherently stupid or uncultured or any of that about things spelled in the American style. There's no earthly reason to try to pretend to be something you're not, and fail, because there's nothing in the world wrong with what you are.
signed,
Fox
People actually educated in British schools are exempt from the above rant.
Please don't spell color and other such words with a 'u' -- colour -- because you think it makes you look smarter, differently educated, more cultured, richer, or any of that. It doesn't. British and US English have different ways of spelling things and that's okay. If you use colour and honour and whatnot and say "oh, that's how I learned to spell it, I can't spell it the other way", you are exposing yourself as little better than ignorant. Of course you can spell it the other way. You know how I usually type all in lowercase around here, capitalizing only in instances of special emphasis, Pooh-style? It's not because that's how I learned to type and I can't use the shift key, yo. It's a choice I'm making -- just, I submit, as you are making a choice to spell flavor with an extra letter that doesn't have any place in the written representation of your dialect.
Which -- okay, choices are choices, and I should back up a step and admit that your choices are your own and you do your own thing. I'm sure the fact that I don't customarily use capital letters (although I do spell things correctly, eschew netspeak, use punctuation, and so on) must cause some people to think of me as ignorant or selfish or pretentious or a variety of other things. But I want you to be aware that your habit of spelling things in the British style makes some of us -- me, at any rate -- think you are aiming for a level of haughtiness you can't quite reach. It's the written equivalent of a really bad imitation of an accent. If you write colour but not centre, I mean to say, the game is up. You're exposed. (I give special dispensation for theatre, because I -- and I know there are others like me -- make a distinction between theatre and theater.) If you don't know a license from a licence, or spell organization with an 's', or eat biscuits instead of cookies, or recycle aluminium instead of aluminum, etc., etc., etc., then for the love of god get the 'u' out of color.
Because the thing is this: there's nothing wrong with American English. Nobody looks smarter or more cultured or any of those things I mentioned up top for spelling things in the British style, because there is nothing inherently stupid or uncultured or any of that about things spelled in the American style. There's no earthly reason to try to pretend to be something you're not, and fail, because there's nothing in the world wrong with what you are.
signed,
Fox
People actually educated in British schools are exempt from the above rant.