Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

Living in Three Anglo Countries Messed Me Up

4/18/2019

0 Comments

 
As far as spelling goes, anyway.

I was born in the United States, but I was educated in Canada, which mostly follows British English spelling (or at least did when I was a student). Nonetheless, we were constantly exposed to American spellings through books and other US publications.

When I was an undergraduate in Toronto, I noticed American spellings blended in with conventional British ones in many newspaper and magazine articles. In addition, Canadians seem to prefer spelling verbs like "analyze" with a "z" rather than an "s." I had American professors who would correct all of my Canadian spellings and Canadian professors who would correct all my American spellings.

I spent eight years living in the United States in my thirties, and for six of those years I was a secondary school English teacher. This meant I had to learn proper US spelling myself first. So neighbour became neighbor, centre became center, and travelling became traveling.

After eight years in America, I moved back to Canada where I continued working as a high school teacher. Guess what? I had to forget all the American spelling rules and reacquaint myself with the Canadian/Brit system again. Neighbor became neighbour again, but analyze was just fine as it was.

To top it all off, I spent nearly a year living and working in England where I had to learn the proper British system of spelling for the first time in my life. Analyse was most certainly not analyze there, thank you very much. 

I now live in Hungary, and I have noticed that I tend to stick to American spelling most of the time, but occasional British/Canadian spellings of words still manage to slip in here and there, leaving me with a blended kind of English that appears to be all my own.

I love English, and I have made the English language the core of my life, but with all its inherent trickery, it might very well be the devil's language of choice!
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.