George George George of the Jungle watch out for the tree.

Well said Esther. You've got our friend George the "Linguist Imperialist" hiding somewhere in the Jungle. . He'll be back with more of his nonsensical replies after he's done with his research in the jungle.

who's standard? - ESL discussion
Posted By: Esther <chihye@dolphin.upenn.edu>
Date: 24 April 2005
In Response To: Spoken English (George)

I am so astonished that something like this is up on the web for everyone to see. What our ignorant friend George wrote about spoken English is definitely misleading and simply put, incorrect. There is no "standard English" because English ranges from not only multiple ways of speaking it but writing it and using it as well. English IS one of the native languages in Singapore and Hong Kong up until the 1970s. There are definite, logical, and "standard" pattern in the English grammar used in Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries that utilize different types and varieties of English. There is effort as we speak in trying to dispel this myth about American or British English being "standard." If we say that these Englishes are "standard" we are assuming that the U.S and U.K are the norms, which is not true. Furthermore, this implication dismisses the use of different forms of English in other nations. Please do more research on types of Englishes. Lippi-Green in "English with an Accent" does a far better and detailed job in explaining the problem with thinking that American or British English is "standard."