Non-Native English Speakers: Which English is more important?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

English English is English that matters

[Docfeelgood]

Now go get someone to explain that, you ****ing racist idiot...

white boy pretending to be black?

[Provost Harrison]

Leave him DFG, you know what he is like...

[Provost Harrison]

I wouldn't mind though, the differences between the two are relatively subtle (no grammatical differences of note, some vocabulary differences that can be learnt and are fairly interchangeable anyway). It is just a little ignorant that the US does not have the same knowledge of British English as the other way round from the rest of the English-speaking world.

[Nikolai]

In children's school and youth school(which I think is ca what junior high is the equivalent of), we learned to write British, but almost every influence we got of English in the media was American. And that influence was extensive already back then, most shows were texted but never dubbed(except the shows for the smallest kids). It's even more direct influence for today's children, a lot has happened the last decade or two. And almost everything is American English.

BTW: In high school we were allowed to choose what kind of English we wrote, as long as it was consistent. I don't think anyone chose the British version. Or, I still feel an urge to write colour and not color, but still.

[Provost Harrison]

I am disappointed

[Al B. Sure!]

They just be acting

1) He's a dumbass

2) He's speaking English; just slang. Excepting for slang words like "duffy" which you may not be familiar with (I sure as **** wasn't) and the fact that he's using a colloquial grammar, it's understandable enough English. You really don't know what he's saying?

"You see big boy; I don't play no games. Come get me, boy. I'm in ghost town. I'm in Jackson, man. I play with big guns for you ***** ass niggas out there **** (unintelligible to me, judging from context, some local slang word for being mad) when I took that **** over. Goodness knows I **** with them boys but they know I go duffy", etc. etc.

You're a dumbass if you can't understand what he's saying or if you don't think that's just English with peppered slang words and some bad, but understandably English and colloquial, grammar.

3) Duffy is apparently Louisiana slang but he says he's from Ghost Town which urban dictionary tells me is probably a name for West Oakland. He may be a transient, the slang might have migrated (but not come up North), or Ghost Town is slang for some town named Jackson somewhere in the South.

This also proves how "Ebonics" doesn't exist because it's not uniform at all. I never heard "Duffy" outside of the surname of Patrick Duffy in my life. New Yorkers have their own slang. Philadelphians have their own slang. Wherever this guy is from has its own slang. What's called "Ebonics" is just an artificial conglomeration of a bunch of regional slangs spoken by Blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Asians in these regions... slang has more working class origins so any group with higher rates of poverty or lower class membership would be more in the forefront of slang development.

4) And yes, he is acting. He's in front of a camera acting a fool because he thinks he's hard (oh wait, you might not know what 'acting a fool' means since it's probably dreaded Ebonics ). He probably doesn't speak that way at a job interview or he's an uneducated dumb**** who will get ****ed in the prison system with his 5 years out of date fashion of pants hanging low, indicating his open-ness to take a **** up his ass in prison. So yeah, he probably knows more respectable English but chooses not to exercise it in such a video (and why would he with his goals of how he wants to be perceived?) or he's really uneducated.

[Provost Harrison]

That is not English

[Docfeelgood]

Albi, you really do have too much time on your hands

[Al B. Sure!]

That is not English

Is it not understandable? I mean aside from slang words you don't know like "duffy", is it not understandable?

It's English if it's intelligible to an English speaker.


Although, honestly, certain British dialects are often unintelligible to me.

[giblets]

I speak English and it's not intelligible to me.

[Al B. Sure!]

I speak English and it's not intelligible to me.

Says something about you then and your comprehension skills.

[giblets]

Says something about you then and your comprehension skills.

What, at least I can understand English people.

[Al B. Sure!]

What, at least I can understand British people.

Cockneys?

Kindly explain these lyrics then:



Not the hook. I can get that. The verses, themselves. There's an occasional word that in intelligible but for the most part,

[giblets]

Are you trying to trick me into watching a rap video? Not happening.