by Nathan Hook

Created on: February 13, 2008

As a New Zealander living in the United States I am continually fumbling about with American versus British spelling since my home country is a former colony of Her Majesty's Government - the Queen that is, for the American audience.

It may seem hard to believe that despite the similarities in spoken language there can be so many differences between two groups of people in terms of spelling and language use. Language is inherently connected to culture and the descriptions of institutions within communities, its' political structures and indeed the way in which the psyche of a nation expresses itself. Here in the US there is no Parliament, or "MP's" outside of the military, no royal family, or Queen. Motorways are freeways or interstates and descriptions are of a grandiose nature to encompass the sheer size of the countries land marks and geography: The Grand Canyon for example, or The Empire State building and The Great Lakes. Then there is the investment in large solid capital buildings of the Greco-Roman style, which reinforces a sense of empire, permanence, grandeur and philosophy. It perhaps lends weight to Margaret Thatcher's observation that Europe was built from history, whereas America was built on philosophy.

In terms of the nitty-gritty of everyday writing the whole experience has been fascinating. As a former school teacher in New Zealand, I picked up some subbing work in a high school and of course the first thing people noticed was my accent - which we will get to later - and the way in which I use language. My first experience was of having to force myself to watch my spelling, as frequently words with an extra "u" brought a polite cough from somebody at the back of the room and the question, "Er, is that how you spell color, Mr Hook?" Thus, all written correspondence had to be poured over with extra caution to avoid public embarrassment at my potential for adding in, as my wife likes to point out, superfluous vowels. To physically be double checking over something that is normally a natural and uncomplicated task was quite nerve wracking, especially in a classroom situation with 30 pairs of eyes analyzing your every move. If the vowels weren't bad enough there were plenty of other words and consonants to trip me up in some unlikely situations. Ever try to play boggle or scrabble in America? The extra vowels come in real handy, but the dubious spelling of words like "defence", "programme", or "realisation", creates issues and some good points of

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