Yea Gods, what do you learn when you travel?

Americans speak American English. Almost everyone else that speaks English as a native language speaks a form of British English, with various local accents and vocabulary added in.

There are over 1.3 billion people who live in countries where English is a native language, meaning it's the official language of the country. Last I checked, America had around 310 million people, not all of whom are native English speakers.

Australia, the UK and New Zealand make up around 90 million people, plus around a billion more in Malta, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, the Bahamas, and a boatload of African countries all of whom have English as an official native language. Due to being former colonies, most are still taught British English.

Americans may think everyone speaks American English, but it's not true.

Can't you leave your anti-American ramblings out of this thread at least.

I did the math a couple years ago and and yes, the US represents slightly more than half of the native English speakers in the world. There are many other countries where there are native speakers, but the US is the 3rd largest country by population and carries a huge portion of native speakers.

And no, India does not have a billion native speakers. India uses English for administrative purposes, but most people that get those jobs have to learn it as a second language later on. What's more, you're talking about a small fraction of the total populace most of whom only speak local languages.

And I have to +1 Simon, this is hardly the place for such anti-Americanism. I was responding with a joke, a factually correct joke, no need to start a flamewar.

I dropped 2 quid even if at the moment I probably shouldn't. but since it's charity and best pony is asking... Prepare for leg-cramps of epic proportions.

Depends on your definitions, really. Before America, there was "English". Americans then modified that language, and now seem to expect us to redefine the name of our language "English" to "British English". That's actually pretty arrogant :)

English is our language, American is the derivative.

Yeah. Or even better, we could take the best bits of British English and American English and add other bugfixes and call that English. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of people would reject a better version, simply because it wasn't as established. The Dark Ages roll on somewhat..

Thanks for the donations so far. I know a lot of people here don't have the money to spare so it means a lot :)

There your now 5 pounds/dollars closer to your goal.

Amen and +1

My sister is doing this as well!

Awesome :)

I don't have any money to give so sorry about that.
But good luck on your thing. I live in London and I used to travel to Brighton quite a lot, it's not an easy journey, how long do you expect it will take you to get there?

Not really, they pass on 100% of the donation and top it up with another 2% to 5%.

No money to spare, unfortunately (long-term unemployment), but I wish you enjoy the experience. ;)

She's actually doing the New Forest one on the same date, so I've split my donation between the two of you! :)

Break a leg. Or at least an arm. Figuratively. :D