Ask an American to explain the rules of baseball and they’ll begin ‘Oh, it’s really very simple…’ Then they’ll give some of the most complex instructions you’ve ever heard. Ask a Brit to explain the rules of cricket and they’ll start with ‘Oh, it’s rather complicated I’m afraid…’ Then they’ll launch into rules of equal complexity.
Both are being polite and friendly in their different ways: the American aiming to include and the Brit apologizing for imposition.
Welcome to my world. I’m a British English teacher who’s learning to speak ‘merican and it’s this structuring of the discourse that’s been my biggest learning challenge. To function well, I have to frame my thoughts differently in the two varieties. It’s taken me more than ten years to get to a point where I can blog about American English, but my American colleagues say I’ve now reached intermediate. Yay!
So now it’s time to share…
