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Post by onlyaworkingtitle on May 30, 2011 23:07:01 GMT -5
I have heard it said that "theater" is used to describe the building, and "theatre" to describe the art that takes place therein. Personally, I prefer to use the latter for everything -- it simply gives me happy feelings -- but meaning isn't harmed by the interchanging of them, so long as the writer is consistent.
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Post by Tori on May 31, 2011 19:05:31 GMT -5
Hm, I've never heard that "theater" and "theatre" differentiation before. Though I have seen it spelled "theater" when referring to a movie theater and "theatre" when referring to the art or the stage.
Call me pretentious, but I think part of the reason I do it is because theatre is very important to me and I see that spelling as more "elegant" somehow....I just feel like it honors the art more....lord, I'm such a theatre nerd. hahah
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Post by Marina on Jun 1, 2011 12:49:12 GMT -5
In other countries they teach British English, not American English, which is frustrating for anyone who comes to U.S. and find that the British and the Americans have such different ways of speaking. I also wish there was less distinction, but I guess language will always evolve.
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Post by Cirrus on Jun 3, 2011 19:26:52 GMT -5
Well. I'm British, so obviously I use British spellings. I find it kind of odd that someone would choose to use whichever spelling they feel like, but I guess maybe I'm just fine with the way British spellings and grammar are? Honestly, standard American grammar differences bug me but with spelling they're just different because that's not how I learnt them.
Considering a lot of current American spellings were once the way it was in the UK, the whole 'debate' seems so strange to me.
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rayyychul
Armadillo
On ne voit bien qu'avec le c?ur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Posts: 159
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Post by rayyychul on Jun 3, 2011 19:30:03 GMT -5
You made interesting points I'd love to learn more about!
For starters, do have any examples of the grammatical differences? I once had an American TA (I'm going to university in Canada) who kept complaining that our grammar rules are different than what he learnt, but I've always chalked it up to him not knowing what he was talking about.
Second, I never knew that it was the British who 'changed' the spellings. I always figured that 'realise' was around before 'realize'!
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 3, 2011 19:38:37 GMT -5
For starters, do have any examples of the grammatical differences? I once had an American TA (I'm going to university in Canada) who kept complaining that our grammar rules are different than what he learnt, but I've always chalked it up to him not knowing what he was talking about. Well, there's the whole word "gotten", for one, which we don't use here. The punctuation in or outside of quote-marks - although that's a trickier one because there are times when it should be outside and times when it should be inside. As far as I'm aware, US English doesn't differentiate practice/practise, licence/license etc. It just uses the 'c' version. US English tends not to say " On Monday, we did this", just "Monday, we did this". I'm not sure about whether or not these are specific to US English, but it appears to me that they are (or at least were, but have become common here, too). "Different than" rather than "different from". "If I would've had the chance" rather than "If I had the chance". Is that the kind of thing you were after? |
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Post by nickusp on Jun 3, 2011 19:41:15 GMT -5
I had a bit of an issue while abroad: essay grading was anonymous so I would get points off for not spelling the British way because they wouldn't know I was American. The only problem was, while I know things like "favourite" and "colour", how was I supposed to know every word that we spell differently? I had a huge problem with z vs. s (ex. realize versus realise).
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Post by onlyaworkingtitle on Jun 8, 2011 0:58:36 GMT -5
Historical and interesting*!
(Note: "interesting" here serves both purposes of the word: "relevant" and "fascinating.")
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Post by iamahexagon on Jun 8, 2011 13:38:11 GMT -5
This whole debate brings something that Stephen Fry said once: the English language changes. Why don't we just let people spell things the way that they want to spell them? If an American wants to add the "u" into the word "color," we should let them. If there is a Briton who wants to take out that "u," then they should be able to without being ridiculed.
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Post by pjthefey on Jun 9, 2011 22:38:41 GMT -5
I agree with the OP. My initial thought was "When in Rome," but then the theatre example caused me to realize that there are several words for which I routinely use non-American English spellings such as "Faerie."
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Post by pjthefey on Jun 9, 2011 22:44:20 GMT -5
In other countries they teach British English, not American English, which is frustrating for anyone who comes to U.S. and find that the British and the Americans have such different ways of speaking. I also wish there was less distinction, but I guess language will always evolve. As a person who plans to be teaching in Korea in a few years, I can say that this is not necessarily true for all countries, or even within a single country. The impression I've been given, at least in the case of South Korea, that it really depends on the instructor's education background. In the case of study abroad students and learning languages overseas, traveling to America is considered to be a upper class experience, whereas going to Australia is thought of as a middle class language learning opportunity even though both end up costing about the same. |
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Post by pjthefey on Jun 9, 2011 22:46:31 GMT -5
Personally, I prefer to use the latter for everything -- it simply gives me happy feelings Ha ha! Thank you for that. I do believe this is my favorite quote of the discussion because it is so simple and yet cuts to the heart of the matter. |
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Post by KatjevanLoon on Jun 9, 2011 23:29:31 GMT -5
I use a mish-mash of American and Canadian spellings, because I lived for 10 years in the States. Old habits.
However, my web browsers are constantly giving me the red squiggles for American spellings, so I find myself getting more Canadian as time goes on. I hate the red squiggles.
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andy
Young Armadillo
Posts: 80
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Post by andy on Jun 10, 2011 2:15:39 GMT -5
In other countries they teach British English, not American English, which is frustrating for anyone who comes to U.S. and find that the British and the Americans have such different ways of speaking. I also wish there was less distinction, but I guess language will always evolve. As a person who plans to be teaching in Korea in a few years, I can say that this is not necessarily true for all countries, or even within a single country. The impression I've been given, at least in the case of South Korea, that it really depends on the instructor's education background. In the case of study abroad students and learning languages overseas, traveling to America is considered to be a upper class experience, whereas going to Australia is thought of as a middle class language learning opportunity even though both end up costing about the same. In Europe most schools teach British English unless they're American international schools. The teaching establishment is generally very much against American English words seeping into their languages - especially in French and German speaking countries. |
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Post by pjthefey on Jun 12, 2011 5:41:37 GMT -5
As a person who plans to be teaching in Korea in a few years, I can say that this is not necessarily true for all countries, or even within a single country. The impression I've been given, at least in the case of South Korea, that it really depends on the instructor's education background. In the case of study abroad students and learning languages overseas, traveling to America is considered to be a upper class experience, whereas going to Australia is thought of as a middle class language learning opportunity even though both end up costing about the same. In Europe most schools teach British English unless they're American international schools. The teaching establishment is generally very much against American English words seeping into their languages - especially in French and German speaking countries. OK I'll trade you Asia for Europe. We've been setting up governments there since WWII which probably explains it. |
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