English taught in foreign schools

[The Longbowman]

Hi,

It's a question for the non-uk/us forumers really. When English is taught in your schools, do you learn US English or UK English? For instance is it:
Colour or color, Pavement or sidewalk, Mobile Phone or Cell Phone, Mad Evil Tyrant or George Bush ?

I was just wondering.

Cheers.

[Gaidin]

Taking a blind guess...I'm gonna shoot for it depending on proximity. ESL in Europe might go for UK vocabulary traditions. ESL in, say, Central America on the other hand...

[Oklop]

Hmmm, when I went to school it was British English, but I am 30 now so things may have changed a bit. We were fresh out of communism so the teachers and books were all British English.

EDIT: not that the Brits were commies but lately my countries (yes countries, ex Yugoslavia and I have multiple passports and citizenships) have been very influenced by the USA in the last 10-ish years so I am not sure.

[Gromovnik]

Hmmm, when I went to school it was British English, but I am 30 now so things may have changed a bit. We were fresh out of communism so the teachers and books were all British English.

EDIT: not that the Brits were commies but lately my countries (yes countries, ex Yugoslavia and I have multiple passports and citizenships) have been very influenced by the USA in the last 10-ish years so I am not sure.

I also learned proper English, but I'm just a few years younger than you.

[rusina]

Both.

[Ahlerich]

in germany we learn propper english of course

[antares24]

here in Italy i learned "true" english, not american slang
ehe actually in high school we had a young irish language assistant (she was named Cathy and was pretty hot ) who told us that the english spoken in Ireland is the best english, and that most british can't speak it properly ( LOL ).

but i get your argument about Uk and US english, i remember my first travel in New York, in London i was able to talk with and understand everyone, in america for the first day i was like "WTF what??" everytime someone talked, they chopped words and spoke too fast it took a bit of time until i started to understand americans

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

here in Italy i learned "true" english, not american slang
ehe actually in high school we had a young irish language assistant (she was named Cathy and was pretty hot ) who told us that the english spoken in Ireland is the best english, and that most british can't speak it properly ( LOL ).

but i get your argument about Uk and US english, i remember my first travel in New York, in London i was able to talk with and understand everyone, in america for the first day i was like "WTF what??" everytime someone talked, they chopped words and spoke too fast it took a bit of time until i started to understand americans

Well new york is bad about accents... Go to California... if you stay out the ghettos you should be able to understand people.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

but i get your argument about Uk and US english, i remember my first travel in New York, in London i was able to talk with and understand everyone, in america for the first day i was like "WTF what??" everytime someone talked, they chopped words and spoke too fast it took a bit of time until i started to understand americans

Americans talk too fast?!?!?!?! I don't know where you went, but its nowhere I know. Even in NY they talk slow.

[The Longbowman]

in germany we learn propper english of course

*In *Germany we learn *proper *English of course. (Yes I'm sure you did it deliberately!)

Das ist nicht gut genug Ahlerich. Gehen Sie zurück bitte einzuschulen.

[Deep_Red]

I think its BE that is taught in schools.
Not that I understood that much of the garbage my teacher tried to tell me... xD

[Flavius Nevitta]

Usually British but it depends pretty much on the teacher.

When you study English at university in order to become a teacher in school you can either specialize on British or American studies (you'll usually study some kind of brief cultural and literary overview of one of them and make more in depth stuff of the other [detailed literature courses, linguistics, phonetics, special pronounciation courses, a.s.o.] ). So it pretty much depends on your own tastes.

So in my case for example I had 2 English teachers who focused on British English and one who was more into American.

[silvercolum]

british english here

[DimondLight]

American Engl.....wait I live in New York.

[Andrew87]

I can still remember my first english lessons.
I was 7 and my dad was in working in the military so he asked a guy he was working with and who lived in the US to teach me english. Every time I didn't answer his questions or made a grammar mistake I had to do 20 push ups.
That has to be the most effective way to learn a foreign language...

So I picked up english with an american accent only to lose the accent in high school where the teachers used a british one.

Basicaly in Europe UK English is the most common version taught.

[Spinoza]

At my school(Netherlands) it's mainly UK English, but we do learn how writing letters and that kind of stuff differs from US English. At tests you can use both UK and US English, they won't really mind.

[Pallantides]

Both, but most prefer the American style.

[Treize]

BE but they do give you examples of other englishes...
AE spelling is the same as any other mistake (in a test).

[Roman_Wolf]

Well in Lebanon, we usually learn British English. But it really depends on the teacher.

[Treize]

My teacher would kill me is I said Tomeeetooow...

Tomàhtw FTW