From: kendall - PM
Date: 17 Jul 11 - 12:46 PM

"As long as we understand each other, that's all that language was created for anyway. "


I wrote the following on a related thread.




"I don't think the problem is just about language.

"I think it's also about our relationship to language.

"It's also about our respective psychologies.

"As to the first, I think us Brits have a somewhat more formal attitude to our language whereas Americans are more freewheeling in their use.

"Regarding the second, The Brits are more down-to-earth, dour and phlegmatic. The Americans are more emotional in their use of language and often don't take well to be taken to task rationally."

So, insofar as there's much grief between Brits and Americans, it's because we often don't realise that we are a bit different from each other because we have what looks like a common language.

The differences in usage given throughout this thread are the more superficial manifestations of that paradox.

Imho.