Why do Americans have so many problems with the English language?

Question

To answer Tim,you have a president that can't pronounce Nuclear correctly.

To rap 1361.It was Winston that said "Divided by a common language" his wit was very dry, the Americans didn't get it.

Answer 1

The reason Americans and really all english speakers have problems with the language has less to do with their intelligence and more to do with the representation of the language itself ie. our alphabet. The problem springs from the inability of the latin alphabet to capture all the sounds of English, just look at words like macabre, is it MAKABRAY, MAKABRUH, MahKuhBrA, you get the point. The problem does not end with the spelling, our sentence structure is so inprecise due largely to no genders thuse the confusion on which person we are talking in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, singular and plural, for example most do not know how to use who, whom, whose, put in Spanish it is such an easy concept due to their reliance on genders and the organization of the language itself. Besides all the above, English is a mixture of so many languages (German, Old Norse, old English, French, Greek) - hence the massive vocabulary that can be quite confusing. The above are some of my theories anyway, unproved hypotheses of course but something to think about!!! Adios!!!

Answer 2

There are many English speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic who have problems with the language.

The difference is that in England, college graduates have a better command of the language, on average, than their American counterparts but in America, working class people speak the language better than their British counterparts.

The reason seems to be in the different educational philosophies and systems that the two countries have. The British begin separating non-academic students from academic students around the age of 13, but Americans encourage them to stay in the system a little longer and to at least, finish high school.

The community college system also allows a lot of people in America to go to college and to graduate who would not be able to do so in England, which still has an elite private college system. Although the American system is more democratic, it will slightly lower the ratio of graduates who are articulate and who have top-notch educations too. That's the trade-off.

Answer 3

The USA has yet to declare an official language.
That's problem #1.

Problem #2. Too much slang, not enough proper English
grammar.

Problem#3. Not enough people care enough to come across as intelligent and articulate individuals.

Answer 4

think this a qoute from Chamberlin , " that the Britsh and USA are two people divided over the same language." guess we end up with different slang because the USA has many different cultures merging together. each adding its little culture to it.

Answer 5

We ain't got no prolems wit da english language. It's understanding all the funny accents of the foreigners we have difficulty with.

Answer 6

Where is your proof? I don't think it's any more true of Americans than other native English speakers.

Answer 7

they are lazy when it comes to language