Listen, I love America as much or more than the next guy. I cry when I sing the Star Spangled Banner. I'm big into the Pledge of Allegiance. The Fourth of July is one of my very favorite holidays.
But let's face it. There is nothing lovely about the way we speak. I feel such envy when I listen to the English speak. And it's not just the way they pronounce their words-- its the the way they phrase things and the order of the words. It is just lovely. So soothing. And so correct.
I am now teaching my fourth child how to read. There are words in the "American English" that do not make any sense. Why do we pronounce "been" as "bin"? The English don't do that. I bet English children have an easier time learning to read since they pronounce words as they ought to.
I cannot get enough of BBC broadcasts or Masterpiece Theater. Pretty much the only things we get from Netflix are English period dramas. My latest favorites: Downton Abbey, Lark Rise to Candleford, Sherlock, Cranford.
I don't play tennis at all, but I quite enjoy watching (listening to) Wimbledon every summer. I don't watch any other tennis tournaments, but I love Wimbledon.
Even as I write, my family is joining me in watching the BBC souvenir William and Catherine wedding coverage DVD. I got it from the library and I was so excited because we were on our St. Louis trip and I didn't get to soak in all the wedding festivities.
As the DVD was getting started they had a BBC reporter interviewing a group of young ladies from several different English speaking countries-- South Africa, Canada, Australia, and yes, even the great United States of America. Why did the reporter have to let the American speak. Painful to my ears.
I'm sorry to be so harsh, but there it is. William and Kate were just pronounced man and wife. Lovely. Just lovely.
4 comments:
I was told by a college counselor to send any boy children I had in future away to English boarding school, so that American girls would swoon for them. Apparently he appreciated his mother for doing him the service!
Love you!
I just watched Sense and Sensibility the other day and was wishing that we still talked like they did back then, so beautiful :)
Ohh have you watched Wives and Daughters??? Very English period. :) My biggest pet peeve is when people don't pronouce the T's in the middle of words.. Buh-un instead of button. AHH!! Drives me bananas.
If you start speaking with proper English and a beautiful accent, perhaps I will follow suite.
Should we start a revolution with language?
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