Would you prefer teaching British English than US English?

[trinity papa]

Nikki is right you know ..... we are all here to learn how to teach baby to read ... he will have his own accent ..... we are not here to teach baby to speak english with what accent ..... (sorry can't help it)

Commonwealth countries, those formally so called "discovered", conquered and ruled by HRM uses HRM English which spans quite far, and those on the american continents would be using Yankee English, pardon my punt .... (sorry don't mean to be rude, if it is rude, since we not native i really have no idea why they say that in movies)  Hey got a chino speaking broken english?? Just kidding ....

Anyway, if i say this i think most would agree with me ..... we all love hollywood movies don't we?? We have seen Shrek, Wild animal animated movies, etc etc ....., i think it matter not the accent as long as its international english without any particular strong accent (eg irish or walch speakers or texan english its abit too strong) But hollywood accent would be nice something easily understood by everybody ...... afterall i brushed up my english watching lots of movies ... yeah i'm a movie fanatic ..... maybe we can get a movie star to voice over the presentations .....    ...(whooo LR is going to be famous, you think donkey of shrek would like to do it?? Ok i'm really pulling legs here .... don't take eddie but cameron would be nice) children loves such cartoons right?

As for the spelling ..... i guess it depends on needs ..... those living in comonwealth countries would love to learn HRM english afterall its about schools, fail the spelling fail the exams .... (GDI save the cheer leader) ...... but i ain't gonna learn brit english with a brit accent .... i am no pretentious gentleman .....  In any case there isn't many such words with spelling difference .... except those Zs with Ss.....

Maybe just maybe we could do it this way ..... get all the words in HRM english using a nice hollywood speaker with an international accent .... and then we have a special file/folder with american spelling englizh .... but same hollywood speaker with an international accent .... this way its just another file .... and we can add it in on top of the brit english .... so they are ...hmm bi-polar?? or if parents like they can remove the original words from the main list and add or replace with americano english ....  

yup sounds good jolly oh chap, bottoms up, cheerio and pardon my slang .....

[mas2in]

I personally would prefer American English, only because that is my mother tongue, but I think both should be taught.   

I am in India and we follow British English here, but in reality it is Indian English.  I will say both accents and phonics both have differences.  I can listen to someone from the UK and have no problem understanding, but at times I still struggle deciphering what is actually being said when I speak with some Indians (and I have been here for more than 10 years).   

So we might even include a spot for Indian English, because, as our society becomes more global, we will see a greater need to know the variations in English.     

[Nikita]

Growing up in Vanuatu I was exposed to many varieties of accents and also spellings, as some books and readers are made in America...and we used them at the British school I went to as well as readers from Australia, NZ and other places. We had a lot of expatriates there, from many different countries. I NEVER realised that the Chinese people spoke English with a different accent, and I could understand them clearly. I could understand any accent of English from any country, and never ever noticed that we all sounded different.

The first time I realised about such a thing as accents, was when I came to Australia, aged 10.5. I didnt notice the Australian accent, but they sure noticed mine was different!! And boy did they laugh at me. I couldnt understand why, because I thought I sounded just like everyone else, and had never ever noticed that people sounded different.

I'm sure my older kids can tell there are different accents, but I doubt bub notices that most educational dvds are with an American accent. Or notices that we Aussies sound different to them.

I can tell you one of the most insulting things I have observed over the years is on TV when a usually white English speaker is interviewing a usually Black English speaker, who is usually from Africa or the Pacific but speaking their native tongue (English), and the translation is given across the bottom of the screeen.  They do the same for people with an acquired brain injury, who are very difficult to understand, who would know they'd be translated.  But I doubt the black people would know they'd be "translated" (like they're speaking a foreign language). I've seen this done with Vanuatu people. It is SO rude. Please dont bring up your kids to be one of those people that cant understand different accents. Expose them to all accents so they get a better trained ear.

[purplefungi]

Growing up in Vanuatu I was exposed to many varieties of accents and also spellings, as some books and readers are made in America...and we used them at the British school I went to as well as readers from Australia, NZ and other places. We had a lot of expatriates there, from many different countries. I NEVER realised that the Chinese people spoke English with a different accent, and I could understand them clearly. I could understand any accent of English from any country, and never ever noticed that we all sounded different.

The first time I realised about such a thing as accents, was when I came to Australia, aged 10.5. I didnt notice the Australian accent, but they sure noticed mine was different!! And boy did they laugh at me. I couldnt understand why, because I thought I sounded just like everyone else, and had never ever noticed that people sounded different.

I'm sure my older kids can tell there are different accents, but I doubt bub notices that most educational dvds are with an American accent. Or notices that we Aussies sound different to them.

I can tell you one of the most insulting things I have observed over the years is on TV when a usually white English speaker is interviewing a usually Black English speaker, who is usually from Africa or the Pacific but speaking their native tongue (English), and the translation is given across the bottom of the screeen.  They do the same for people with an acquired brain injury, who are very difficult to understand, who would know they'd be translated.  But I doubt the black people would know they'd be "translated" (like they're speaking a foreign language). I've seen this done with Vanuatu people. It is SO rude. Please dont bring up your kids to be one of those people that cant understand different accents. Expose them to all accents so they get a better trained ear.

I don't think that it is out of rudeness, I think that it is for clarification. People who have such strong/thick accents are hard to understand when you're not used to hearing people speak that way. I wish that I had subtitles for the doctors that I listen to over the phone, and I've been listening to them since I was 18. Furthermore, it is a two-way street because they don't understand everything that we say either. It is easy to mix up "cerebyx" with celebrex" epinephrine" and "ephedrine" and other similar-sounding names when you're not used to different sounds.

 It is hard to understand every single accent and variation because every single foreign language/region will produce its own accent when a person learns English or any other language later in life. When I moved to Michigan after living in Minnesota (the accent kind of sounds Irish/Canadian in a way) people couldn't understand me at all. That was only a 700 mile move away.

They do the same thing for Spanish-speakers because there are so many regional accents. I have a hard time understanding some Spanish-speakers who come from Mexico, but I don't have a hard time with those who come from Spain.

[momtoo]

I would prefer American English since I live in the US but when I was growing up and was reading a lot of books, I was exposed to British English and the spelling was very confusing for me (specially when teachers deduct points for wrong spelling). Maybe we can have sort of a list of American & British words that have different spelling?

[Nikita]

You never know when having an ear that understands different accents will come in handy. What if your child works overseas, maybe as a foreign ambassador? In Australia we are plagued with phone callers at 6pm telemarketing us, who are usually from New Delhi in India!! And most people complain they cant understand a word they're saying, so are rude to them and hang up. But now many of our companies out-source their phone answer people to India, so we may ring up our phone or utilities company and have an Indian person on the other end. Tough if you cant understand them!!

[Aguh]

I find British English (BE) is spoken clearer and therefore much easier to understand if you learn it as a foreign language, at least for me. But maybe that's because I went to school in Germany and here they teach Britsh English only.

However, I'd like to teach both AE and BE (later on, because I have not done anything in this direction), thus my daughter would be able to understand AE easier than I do now . And it is easier to find AE stuffs on internet/movies etc.

To sum up, a YES for BE from my side.

[jakim]

i will be showing my son US english because i don't hear any british english except when my cousin's girl friend vist us from England. we understand her quiet well.

[LongTallDrink]

I'm not much concerned about accent, but a British spelling option would be nice - it's what we use here in Canada.

[nathank]

In reference to KL's query re:british english as well as american english, I would much prefer a british version, as we live in the UK, and I'd like my baby to recognise british spellings. However, it is not too much of a problem having the american version, and it is nice to have different accents - i agree with some of the previous posting re wanting my baby to be able to recognise different accents...

[KL]

Thanks everyone for all your input!

Looks like we'll have a British version some time!

[mooncake2]

In a nutshell, we should follow what's commonly accepted/used in our country.  If I were to be in the US, I'll go for American english as it just doesn't make much sense to teach my baby British english.  As for me, my country uses British english, hence British english will be my choice.  Imagine teaching your baby "mommy" and "color" only to confuse her at school with "mummy" and "colour".  This is unnecessary confusion.

[AliR]

It would be great to have the option of choosing to teach British english. I live in Ireland and I am very interested in Brillkids but I'm not too sure about using the American version because I would be teaching spelling that is not correct for my country. So, to make your product work better internationally, different versions make sense.

[appley]

What gets me isn't the spelling, it's when meanings truly get confused between the two main Englishes (UK and US).  The whole Jam vs Jelly vs Jello debate comes to mind...

In my opinion, English is English however it's spelled, but I would still prefer UK English if only because I feel the Americans tend to limit their vocabulary and shorten/make up words when there are plentiful synonyms available.  The British are known for their eloquence and it can't hurt to give my baby a wider vocabulary

[lelask]

Hi anyone knows anything about about the british versions?
In Europe we are learning British English so this version would be great.

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