Things I've Learned About English

During my time in Vietnam I've learned a lot about the differences between American English (AE) and British English (BE). For example,

• Americans drive down the street and make a right (or left) turn. Brit's make a right (or left) turning.
• You leave your car in "a car park" in England but in "a parking lot" in America.
• AE calls the place where you're supposed to walk across the road "a crosswalk." Because of the wide lines painted parallel to the sidewalk, BE calls it "a zebra crossing."
• A dot at the end of a sentence is called "a period" in AE. In BE, they call it "a full stop."
• BE prefers to say, "I haven't got ". Americans are much more likely to say, "I don't have ." (That topic was my most confusing class ever because it was hard to avoid switching back and forth between the two.)
• You may have noticed in the previous example that BE ends a quote with " and then a full stop. AE places the quotation mark after the period.
• AE hates the passive voice; BE seems to love it.
• "Sneakers" (AE) are "trainers" (BE) and "lorries" (BE) are "trucks" (AE).
• AE's "crazy" is "mad" in BE, but "mad" in AE means "angry."
• Americans do things "on the weekend" and don't like going "to the hospital." Brits do things "at the weekend" and don't like going "to hospital."
• England uses an IPA phonology chart which includes vowel sounds that most Americans never use. This is why some people don't understand me when I talk about my job until I pronounce it like Job (the name of the guy in the Bible.)
• In standard British English, /r/ is only pronounced if it comes before a vowel. My theory is that the colonists stole all the r's and took them to America. Whatever the reason, it accounts for the different pronunciations of words like war and turn.
• Word stress varies between the two types of English. For example, CONtroversy (AE) is pronounced conTROversy in BE.

There are differences in other languages too, like Spanish Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish, French French and Canadian French, and northern, central and southern Vietnamese. It's part of the challenge of learning and teaching language.

Got any examples that make you crazy/mad?

It Gets Clearer Bit By Bit

Look at the first picture below. Can you tell where it was taken? How many people are in the photo? Are they men, women or children? What are they doing? Are they happy or sad? Is it winter or summer?

Now look at the next photo and try to answer the same questions.(Don't skip down to the third photo yet!) Where was it taken? How many people? Men, women or children? What are they doing? Are they happy or sad? Is it winter or summer?

Look at the third one. Don't look at the last one yet! Where was it taken? How many people? Men, women or children? What are they doing? Are they happy or sad? Is it winter or summer?

And here's the last one. What can you tell from the picture now?

As each picture gets clearer, you can get a better understanding of what is happening. Reading is like that too. Each time you read a text, you understand a little more about it. And you don't have to understand every single word to understand what's being written - just like you don't have to see every part of the photo to know what the picture is about.

Don't worry if we finish a unit and you still don't know every word used in the article. If you concentrate on getting the big picture and learning 10-15 new words each week, your reading ability will improve.