Mixing American and British English

[multilingo]

I grew up in the country where although we have American Standard English as the second mother language, I noticed that somehow, a lot of us have problems spotting words, spelling that differentiate between American and British English.

When I was in college and was taking Journalism in my early semester, how many times I found myself mixing this up. My professor told me that there is actually no problem of using either one or the other. But the thing was, he wanted that if my article is written in American standard, then I just have to make sure that I stick to it, which means, there should not have any British English words hanging in there. But often, he always found one or two words.

Anyone who can relate to this?

[宇崎ちゃん]

I always wrote according to the British standard (switched to the Australian standard 2 years ago, since Australians have one easier rule), but I used to mix both standards while speaking.
What I speak now is still unknown, I heard some people say Australian, some others say Irish, yet some other people say Scottish, even 1 person said Canadian, etc.

The easier rule I was talking about is this:
Americans always end ize/ise/yze/yse words with "ize" and "yze" (realize, paralyze), Australians use "ise" and "yse" instead (which I find much nicer to read for some reason) (realise, paralyse) and the British are OK both ways, depending on the word.
Other than that, British and Australian English are pretty much equal when it comes to spelling.

[Chris_A]

I also mix American and British English together. I don`t really know why. Maybe I had different teachers who preferred one over the other, and so I got comfortable with both. I did not know that there is actually a difference with Australian English as well. Very interesting.

[anna3101]

This is a bit of a problem for many people, myself included. I grew up, studied and graduated in a country where British is considered to be the golden standard, however, with the amount of songs, films and books in American English, I find myself invariably mixing up the two.

I try my best to stick to one thing at a time and use American orthography when I'm writing emails to Americans and British orthography for anything else, but it is difficult. I'd love to find an easy way to switch between the two. Especially in terms of pronunciation - I listen to a huge amount of both American and British songs, and the pronunciation from both sides of the Atlantic tends to merge in my head.

[foolsgold]

I can definitely relate. I used to work in Australia for a while and had to use the British versions to "blend in." People would often times ask where I'm from if I used the American version (one time I asked "what floor" and the woman was confused. I should have used "what level")  When I came back to my home country, I had to use the American versions again so people won't think I'm a snob for using British. I can't help but use centre, realise and other -ise words especially.

[rcdpink]

I can absolutely relate to what you are saying. I used to have this issue in my writing while I was in high school. There was also the issue of typing articles using Microsoft Word. The computer always seemed to default the language to American English instead of the International English. Most times I would just stick with this default but I've come to understand that the British English is the one that is internationally recognized. As a consequence of this, I started to make sure that everything that I wrote or typed was done in British English and today I have no struggles in differentiating words of either dialect.

[rcdpink]

I can definitely relate. I used to work in Australia for a while and had to use the British versions to "blend in." People would often times ask where I'm from if I used the American version (one time I asked "what floor" and the woman was confused. I should have used "what level")  When I came back to my home country, I had to use the American versions again so people won't think I'm a snob for using British. I can't help but use centre, realise and other -ise words especially.

For me I don't seem to care what people think once I know I'm not doing something that is illegal or wrong. I do have the heart to make adjustments yes, but at the same time I do believe that people themselves can also adjust. They can also get used to me and give me the time and the grace period to adopt their dialect. Yes and it is true that there are not only variations in writing but also in speaking.

[宇崎ちゃん]

I can absolutely relate to what you are saying. I used to have this issue in my writing while I was in high school. There was also the issue of typing articles using Microsoft Word. The computer always seemed to default the language to American English instead of the International English. Most times I would just stick with this default but I've come to understand that the British English is the one that is internationally recognized. As a consequence of this, I started to make sure that everything that I wrote or typed was done in British English and today I have no struggles in differentiating words of either dialect.

To solve that, you can try to do this:

[czarina84]

As an American, I can honestly say that over here, it doesn't really matter which one you use, American English or British English, you can pretty much be understood.  I'm sorry your teacher is giving you such a hard time about it.  I have had the same problem in Spanish.  The fact that the language has a similar base but different uses for the words depending on the region gets very confusing.