Not One In The Same
“Sport” Rhymes with “Boat”
by Charlie Geer
An American ESL instructor in Spain can expect to use not American but British materials in the classroom. The textbooks, the handouts, the CDs and DVDs…all of these will be British. Because the UK is a member of the EU, British materials are both geographically and bureaucratically more accessible to Spain than American materials. So are British ESL teachers. The difference between the amount of paperwork required for a Brit to legally work in Spain (very little) and the amount of paperwork required for an American to legally work in Spain (boatloads) is astounding. Point being, most ESL students in Spain study British spelling, British pronunciation, and British usage, and an American stepping in on the scene is advised to remember this, so as not to throw everything off and/or appear totally unqualified to be teaching English.
Americans can adjust readily enough to spelling disparities, to “colour,” “analyse,” “licence” and the like. As English speakers, we know not to get too attached to consistency and logic in spelling, and as American consumers, we have seen British spelling before, in marketing. “Towne” and “centre” come easily enough to me thanks to a strip mall back home named “Towne Centre,” which name for a strip mall is so absurd in so many ways that it cannot be easily forgotten.
Continue Reading Noted Abroad.
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I am reminded of an incident with a Welsh friend. While traveling in LA, an unfortunate miscommunication happened when he told a local that his friend (the local’s) was out “sucking on a fag.”