Is it wrong mixing British and American English? I have begun learning English very early in my life. It was not a formal study, in a regular school. I was around 7 or 8 years old, and I used to read

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Flavio Carvalho

Is it wrong mixing British and American English? I have begun learning English very early in my life. It was not a formal study, in a regular school. I was around 7 or 8 years old, and I used to read some old English books that an aunt left at my grandfather's. They were scholar books and books for children. One of them included some EP's (yes, it happened so long ago). As I didn't have a disc player to listen to them, I used to listen the discs at my neighbour's house. These are the earliest memories I have in learning languages. Today I consider that I can express myself, not fluently, nor perfectly, but confidently and other people can understand me, as I can understand them. But the fact is that, as I've learnt English all my life studying by myself, I built up my knowledge through several materials, some of them focusing on UK English, others on US English. In 2008, I decided to attend English classes in a regular school. So, I went there and told them that I already knew some English, and I would like to apply for an assessment exam. The exam included writing, reading and conversational skills. I noticed that they couldn't believe how I could talk ou write in so high level, as I never attended the "learning formal system". After the assessment exam, the teacher told me she noticed that I was mixing British and American English, both in writing and in speaking. (I believe it was some kind of apologize for not put me in a higher level). So, what happened? I attended classes for six months and got dismotivated, as I wasn't learning anything new, so I quit and continued learning by myself. I don't know if mixing UK and US English is good or not, but, in fact, does this division relly exist? I think maybe people are so obsessed in imitating british and american speakers, and they forget that our mother language influences considerably the way we speak other languages. I should tell you that we will never lose our accent. So, who can say that the "Brazilian English", "Arabic English" or "Italian English" does not exist?.

Corrections · 3

Is it wrong mixing British and American English?

[amarelo=corrigir,azul=melhorar]

I began learning English very early in my life. It was not a formal study, in a regular school. I was around 7 or 8 years old, and I used to read some old English books that an aunt left at my grandfather's. They were school books and books for children. One of them included some EP's (yes, it happened so long ago). As I didn't have a record player [at least I think that's what you mean - EPs are large discs, not CDs, right? We usually call those "records" and they are played on a record player] to listen to them, I used to listen to them at my neighbour's house.
These are the earliest memories I have in learning languages. Today I consider that I can express myself, not fluently, nor perfectly, but confidently and other people can understand me, as I can understand them.
But the fact is that, as I've learnt English all my life studying by myself, I built up my knowledge through several materials, some of them focusing on UK English, others on US English.
In 2008, I decided to attend English classes in a regular school. So, I went there and told them that I already knew some English, and I would like to apply for an assessment exam. The exam included writing, reading and conversational skills. I noticed that they couldn't believe how I could talk or write at such a high level, as I never attended the "learning formal system" [I don't understand what this means but I guess it makes sense in the Brazilian Education system].
After the assessment exam, the teacher told me she noticed that I was mixing British and American English, both in writing and in speaking. (I believe it was some kind of apology [or "an excuse"] for not putting me in a higher level). So, what happened? I attended classes for six months and got demotivated, as I wasn't learning anything new, so I quit and continued learning by myself.
I don't know if mixing UK and US English is good or not, but, in fact, does this division relly exist? I think maybe people are so obsessed in imitating british and american speakers, and they forget that our mother language influences considerably the way we speak other languages. I should tell you that we will never lose our accent. So, who can say that the "Brazilian English", "Arabic English" or "Italian English" does not exist?

A good question. To be honest, I'm not sure if you are looking for an answer or just writing this as a way of practising your writing skills but I'm going to try and give my view anyway!

The differences between US and british english are very small compared to the differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese. I correct quite a lot of texts on iTalki and I usually put notes in the text where someone has used a word that is specific to one language but I only need to do that about one time in every three texts. In the whole of your text, the only one you used was "apologize" (in the UK we spell it "apologise") and I have used one other example in my reply (the verb "practising" would be "practicing" in the US). If you mix the two up, it's not a real problem, and I think you're right that they were just using it as an excuse.

As a general rule, it's best to use US english. I feel like a traitor to the Queen for saying so, but it's true. America's film, TV and media industries are much more powerful than all the other english-speaking countries combined, so we are all used to watching their TV, just as the Portuguese are used to watching your telenovelas, and they are less accustomed to watching ours. What that means is that if you say "I am sitting in an apartment eating an eggplant", most british people will know what you mean immediately, but if you say the same thing in UK english ("I am sitting in a flat eating an aubergine") you might find that some American listeners will not know what you mean.

But definitely, definitely, don't worry about mixing US and UK english. We do it all the time and misunderstandings are quite rare.

That's an excellent point, Shyuan. Both of you have excellent english. Well done!

This question had been bothering me for a long time too. In my hometown, we study British English, but many of us (teenagers) are influenced by American pop songs so most of the time we use (or we tend to use) American accent to pronounce some British words. We have always been mixing up these two genres. In this globalized era, due to the development of internet and technology, it becomes easier for us to know about other cultures, and at the same time, somehow being influenced by other cultures, unavoidably. I think mixing up, or producing a new element for a language is not a problem, instead, is just a sign of globalization? maybe. Personally, I think it shouldn't be wrong to mix up languages, especially in this modern era, mixing is also a product. Plus, the process of mixing has created nowadays' languages and dialects too, so what's wrong with mixing it up?

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