Purpose of Studying English What sometimes annoys me is that people often talk to me as if American accent or spelling is the only proper style of English. Of course I like the US; I listen to a lot o

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Selah

Purpose of Studying English What sometimes annoys me is that people often talk to me as if American accent or spelling is the only proper style of English. Of course I like the US; I listen to a lot of American music, and some of my favourite actors are American. However, it's definitely not right to claim it to be the one and only "correct" form of English when there are so many other styles around the world. For me, the purpose of learning English is not to become an American, but to smoothly communicate with others who don't speak my native language and be able to understand them better. I know that I will never be able to completely lose my Japanese accent, but I am not ashamed of it one bit. Learning other cultures and languages does not equal to losing my own identity, and I think there is no need to imitate American (or other) accent too much as long as there's no problem in communication. What do you guys think?

Corrections · 6

Purpose of Studying English

What sometimes annoys me is that people often talk to me as if the American accent or system of spelling (spelling system) is the only proper style form [1] of English. Of course, I like the US; I listen to a lot of American music, and some of my favourite actors are American. However, it's definitely not right to claim it to be that it is the one and only "correct" form of English when there are so many other styles forms around the world. For me, the purpose of learning English is not to become an American, but to smoothly (effectively) communicate with others who don't speak my native language and be able to understand them better✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔. I know that I will never be able to completely lose my Japanese accent, but I am not ashamed of it one bit. Learning about other cultures and languages does not equal to is not worth losing my one's [2] own identity, and I don't think there is no any need to imitate the American (or any other) accent, too much // as long as there's no problem in communication // as long as clear and effective communication can be achieved.

blue - suggestion, green - addition of something, black - deletion of something, underlined () - another way of saying something

[1] I would probably place '... American accent and spelling system... ' with 'American English'

[2]'one's' includes everyone who learns about foreign languages and cultures 'my'

What do you guys think?

In all honesty, I think your English is amazing and I completely agree with you.

By not speaking or writing proper English, you will find the glass ceiling harder to penetrate. It is not just English but in any language. If you speak bar room Japanese, do you think you can rise high in your work place? I am not talking about accent etc. I you are a gaijin speaking Japanese, you will give them slack. So by the same token, you don't look white, you are excused for your accent... I believe Jack is referring to "My Fair Lady". http://www.tudou.com/playlist/p/l2350485.html

Excuse me, Karl, I don't agree with you. First of all, I guess no one is sure that he can speak English absolutely correctly without accents including native speakers. (You can find witnesses to my words are in Fair Lady.) Secondly, not only English is hard to speak correctly, but also Chinese is so. As for Chinese, there are many provinces in China. Although many of us speak Putonghua, no one confess that other dialects are not Chinese. Even we Chinese speak Putonghua with some accents from dialects. As for a foreigner, that's harder to avoid accents. The English is so. At last, although I don't know much about English, please allow me to put my two cents in. English is a kind of developing languages. And the rules of any language are changeable. Becuase of many kinds of English, it can develop all over the world not only in Britian. Whether you agree with me or not,please don't look upon such question on your own standpoint. Thanks. That's all I have to say for now.

I forgot to correct the title, sorry. 'The Purpose of Studying English' sounds better. Also in [1], I wrote 'place' instead of 'replace.' I wish corrections were correctable.

I am British and so I couldn't agree with you more! The British people invented the language and then the Americans came later, thus it is only really right to say that British English is the correct English. There is absolutely no need to copy accents, people should just be themselves!

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