But it's still English... You don't speak Mexican either

by Anonymous 12 years ago

there's Mexican Spanish and Spanish Spanish. They're also different dialects of the same language. Even in Singapore, we call the bicycle a jiao ta che in Mandarin, but in China it's called something else. Therefore, a Chinese immigrant would probably nto understand us as if we were speakign a different dialect. Even in Malaysia and Indonesia, there are two dialects of Malay. The Indonesian one is closer to the original, but it's called Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language) but the Malay one, which is very much different from original Malay is Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language). Whoever founds a language should be allowed to dictate the 'correct' way to use it, even if other ways are easier, more efficient or otherwise superior, in some or all aspects.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well, usually when you take a Spanish class, you learn both "Mexican Spanish" and "Spanish Spanish". Sometimes you learn different slang from other Spanish speaking countries, like Chile. It's all just lumped together because it is the same language, there's just different slang.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Dialect =/= language

by Anonymous 12 years ago

So then what's the "real" Spanish?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Spanish

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Exactly my point.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Um just saying America refers to Canada Mexico and The U.S and don't forget South America. Then technically that wouldn't work since Mexico and Canada would both be speaking 'American' while Canadians use the same spelling as in england and Mexico speaks Spanish

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That refers to The Americas. All locations in the American landamss are part of The Americas, but America usually refers to just the USA. I'm not sure but I think the original discoverers of the new landmass called the whole thing America, but things changed and now it mean --The United States of-- America. Canada, Mexico, etc have short enough names, and the landmass has a name by itself, so America can refer to the US without confusion.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

a·mer·i·ca/əˈmerikə/A landmass in the western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North and South America joined by the Isthmus of Panama. Nothing here about the U.S When they say America they refer to both south and north America

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's colloquial. If you want to get all technical, Europe isn't even a continent. Neither is Asia. The biggest continent in the world is actually part of an even bigger continent called Eurasia. They were only divided politically because of the massive tech and culture differences from so long ago. If you notice, in all official documents, America is always referred to as US, USA or a form of them.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

North AMERICA YEah exactly in all official doccument it says U.S.A or U.S. not A. (America)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah... Olde English the "original" English, not British English and Olde English sounds //nothing// like modern British //or// American English. English is English. They are both simply different dialects of **English**. The difference between the English that people in the southern US and say the middle of the US differs in many ways. Maybe not quite as much as American and British but the basic point is that they are essentially the //**__SAME DAMN LANGUAGE__**//

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah. That's my point. There's Hokkien Chinese and Cantonese Chinese and Mandarin Chinese. THey're all Chinese, but different enough to be called dialects and the 'Chinese' omitted. It's not really correct to call it just American, but everyone knows what you mean, and it's not like they're exactly the same. A language is like a genus and a dialect like a species.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Honestly I've never heard someone call it simply "American" I've heard English and then of course American English and British English and whatever so that's partly my confusion.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Some people still call it American. They're usually the same people who think there's America, and one other country with 190+ states. If that actually happened, America wouldn't be a superpower.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You know what's embarresing. I just read the post completely wrong which messed up my entire argument.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think it would be cool to actually compare the differences between 'American' English and 'British' english. I'm sure there may be some word gaps but overall they are basically the same.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah, but they both have a lot of differences. -ise vs -ize, -ou- vs -o-. Give me it is correct in American English but not in British English, They're chips in Britain but fries in the US. Football vs soccer is probably the most famous one.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I know there's a differences in what we call restrooms.

by Anonymous 12 years ago