Anthony, chill mate. I was also going to give him a piece of my mind but thought better of it.
As I mused over his email I realised that he was really attacking Russians who wanted to learn British English instead of American English. Then i thought Let's not make a mountain out of a molehill and let's not make waves. Let sleeping dogs lie. This is an information mail list, not a flame anyone-who-offends-you-list. Being British and in the 'middle ground, I understand; All dialects of England English All dialects of Scottish, Irish and Welsh English All dialects of American English Indian English Pakistani English German English French English Russian English Asian English (with a little bit of concentration on my part) :-) Australian English South African English Icelandic English Mexican English and too may others to mention here. Even if someone learnt Queen's English they would be lost with Geordie or Scouse and forget the 'ze' of French English or the lack of consonants of middle American English. I normally find that these people who complain about 'British English' compared to 'American English' really don't know more than 1 dialect of either. Americans generally (I apologise to Americans who are world travelled, and seeing as you are reading this in Moscow, that's you I'm apologising to) know their continent's dialects and that's all, Brits however due to our (ex) colonies and European travel can manage to teach a greater range of English understanding. There is, I must point out, more dialects of English within the British Isles than there are within the rest of the world's English speaking community. (BBC's The History of English) Oh dear, listen to me, I seem to have vented my spleen, to have waffled on for a bit, and there's me without the gift of the gab! For those Russians who want to know the meanings of these and other phrases seek a middle-ground British-English teacher. (read between the lines) Not me by the way. I work in Construction. :-) By the way, the BBC has an excellent self teach English webpage. www bbc co uk Julian "Anthony Corbett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 03/09/2008 15:32 Please respond to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Moscow Expat List <[email protected]> To "Kirill Galetski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "The Moscow Expat List" <[email protected]> cc Subject Re: Expat List Russians' preoccupation with British English Would you go to Quebec to learn French, or Brazil to learn Portuguese? I doubt it. Why would you want to learn American English with all its corruptions and barely understandable slang, originating from immigration several hundred years ago, when you can learn British English, the latest form of a language that is constantly refining? In addition, the UK is considerably closer, unless you live in the Far East. Why would you teach both forms of a language? That is like teaching several dialects of a language at the same time. My two pence worth! Anthony 2008/9/2 Kirill Galetski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hi, Russians' preoccupation with British English and necessarily having a British is irksome at best, idiotic at worst. As a former English teacher, I take offence [sic] to it. The world standard for business is American English, with all of the trappings thereof. It's not an accident that major non-Anglo corporations such as German concern Bosch have American English as their standard for all English-language communications. To quote Bill Bryson from his book MADE IN AMERICA, An Informal History of the English Language in the United States, "To this day it remains a commonplace in England that American English is a corrupted form of British speech, that the inhabitants of the New World display a kind of helpless, chronic 'want of refinement' every time they open their mouths and attempt to issue sounds. In fact, in several significant ways it is British speech that has become corrupted, or, to put it in less reactionary terms, has quietly evolved." Nevertheless, I believe that when English is taught, both the American and British varieties should be taught in nearly equal measure. This implies having a teacher that is competent to do both, but it certainly does not limit the teacher to being only of the British nationality. Just my two kopeks' worth. Kirill. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 12:03:37 +0400 (MSD) Subject: Expat Digest, Vol 47, Issue 3 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2008 21:37:25 +0400 > From: "Dasha Repina" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Expat List English tutor > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], "The Moscow Expat List" <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi John, > > thanks a lot for your attention, but the requirement of my boss is quite > exact. He wants British teacher. > > All of the best, Daria. _______________________________________________ Expat mailing list [email protected] http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat http://www.expat.ru/forum/ -- Anthony Corbett Head of International M&A Vimpelcom 4 Krasnoproletarskaya St. Moscow 127006 Russian Federation T: +7909 991 7783 M: +7962 942 1682 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] S: anthonycorbett_______________________________________________ Expat mailing list [email protected] http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat http://www.expat.ru/forum/
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