A wise Indian once said, "I pity the Americans. They are native to the English language, and yet they are so bad at it."

Heh, very true in some cases.

Well, that's bloody yanks for ya, bub.

lol wut r u 2 talkin about?

it's a different dialect than brittish english, but that doesn't mean they're bad at speaking it. Unless you mean because of all the urban 'gangsta' talk... and even then, I guess you could call that a dialect too.

I think this might be what he's referring to.

I think its safe to say that neither the British nor the Australians speak proper English either...

It's okay neither do Canadians eh?

speak for yourself, eh.

Oi wehnt to the mohket and oi peiked up some cohn foh dinner.

I went to the market and I picked up some corn for dinner.

I can't stand the thick annoying female English accent. I mean, how do you consider the 'english way' the proper way, when all da wehrds ah pronunced diffrentlay den dere spelt? Oi mean oi ken undastand most o' it pr'tty oh.k. but some o' it's a bit hahd on me eahs.

I'm horrible at explaining things, but it seems the New England/American way of talking sounds more 'english' then the English way of talking. Not just because I live here, but because the accent makes words sound different then they are pronounced. It seems North Easter USA has the proper pronounciation down, while the rest of the USA speaks all FUBAR.

Parts of the US and England:

"Oh ja, ja, real good now!" <- Anyone who has seen Fargo knows what I mean.
"Nah, eh'll tell ya whut, dat dern thing over therr"
"Oi've ollmost fohgot to check on da pudding mum!"

Then we have the North Eastern USA people...
"Hello, my name is Jon, this is how I talk. I pronounce words how they look, no accent here!"

Maybe it's just me *shrug*

I don't think there really is a standard English these days, or at least no one uses it any more. There are so many regional dialects and different vernaculars out there that it's been lost

Did we really get words like "bling bling" in the dictionary?

so POOR at it.

1'|\/| 50 900|) 47 7|-|3 3|\|9|_15|-| |_4|\|9|_|493!!!

no, there is such a thing as phonetic english, and like SAJN said, the north-eastern american accent is what's the closest to it. People just assume brits speak 'normal' english because the english language originates from england, but that doesn't mean anything. The way people speak in england is very influenced by the french language (because of proximity to france). When english colonists settled in the colonies, they were no longer in proximity to france, so their way of speaking ceased to be "corrupted" (if you could say that), while the brittish way of speaking kept changing as a result of french influence. The exact same thing happends to french people, as their way of speaking more and more ressembles english, while african and north american french remains closer to what it was 500 years ago (pronounciation-wise).

Now, southerners... that I can't explain! :p

You're all wrong, mate.

New Zealanders... Now there's a crazy accent.

we b laZ ppl.

May u plz pass da ketchup?

lol! roflmao!

stfu n00bs.

Actually, it seems that here ppl are generally pretty good at English. I rarely have trouble understanding what they type.

ok, take the nothern american accent, slow it down, and lazy-fi it, that is the southern accent.

What in tarnations are you talkin bout misses?

What? You never seen shorthand before? :p

I write it at least once a (school) day in my notes...

(The little bits of common expressions/shorthands are now exempt from my statement. th><or :))

Yes, like Dor once said,

"Really they're all wrong, and New Zealand has it right."

Or words to that effect.

The large differences between American English and British English stem largely from early American attempts to distance themselves from the British in the eyes of the world.

Eh... SAJN, you realize that the movie "Fargo" exaggeratted the Northen accent up the yin-yang? And no, we don't say 'Ja' it's 'Oh yah', get it straight. Yeah, we do speak similar to how they had the actors speak in "Fargo", but it's not nearly as bad, save for the occasional hick of the north/tundra hillbilly.

I think its just because you live there, we see your accents as being like that too.

The irony is that the attempts to become less like the British resulted in America becoming more like the French.

What year?

I was down in the States once, and when I said I was from Canada, somebody asked me "So can you speak English AND Canadian?"

It was hilarious.

The frightening reality of the intelligence this nation displays.

Oh and you can thank the French for introducing us to the 'qu' phonetic. "Queen" was once spell "cwen" (bar over e).

I got that too.

"So if you're from Australia, how come you speak English so well?"

We speak english here? Bugger me.

Pssh, people in the Midwest speak the clearest, blandest English in the world.

quoted for truth and funnyness (yes, I know that is not a word)

Which country of they great continant of dictionarya do you live in, Websterland, oxfordia or mabye the smaller nation of collinsia?

You're going to blow a fuse and explode and die before the age of twenty. Do you react so passionately to utterly trivial things in real life?

did you even see the rolleyes.gif?

The life of the wife is ended by the knife.

Wasn't Webster American?

That is the only family guy song that I can safely say annoyed the hell right out of me.

The only possible accent I can think of that even closely resembles that is a very strong southern (maybe Cornish) accent. I have never in my life met someone who talks like that (though I've heard a few on the Archers).

As far as I can tell, I pronounce the words exactly as they're written(as much as the language will allow, seeing as English often makes zero sense at all when it comes to pronounciation). I can assure you it is very much your opinion, based on where you grew up and what sounds you were used to.

[ps. I would like to thank the Australians for making this thread funny!]