Do they teach American language in Primary schools nowadays?

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Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
Zero for 0 when giving out phone, bank card numbers etc, period for full stop/end of sentence, guys for both male and female. I hate it when adults call children guys.:thumbsdown:
 

PaulSB

Squire
We spent a month in California recently and on occasions people might have been speaking a different language. In some situations my wife and I both needed young people in particular to repeat themselves and even slow down their speech. More than once I noted a roll of the eyes and an exasperated expression.
 

Cathryn

Legendary Member
I was telling my grandson that the temperature was -1 this morning and he said: " You mean negative 1?" Where does that come from? I asked him why he said
negative 1 and he said this is what his teacher taught him. He is in year 5.
So, are there any primary school teachers on here to advise on why they teach the American way?
Personally, I will stick to the proper way and use minus for lower than 0 temperature.

I teach Y4 and no, we say minus 1, minus 2.
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
And when did macaroni cheese become 'mac and cheese'?

I made similar comments to my new Canadian son-in-law and was promptly educated by him and DD on the differences.

Mac and Cheese is much more interesting than the UK's nursery food macaroni Cheese of basic white sauce with cheese.
 

GuyBoden

Guru
Location
Warrington
We watch a lot of USA films and TV programmes, the internet is dominated by USA language too, so eventually it was obviously going to filter into our British language.

Edit: I read a lot of USA books too.
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
What about 'can I get' - illiterate yobs yobs corrupting the English language. There's no hope.

"can I lend", instead of "can I borrow" is a common one which irritates me, or, perhaps, it is just my daughter's usage as in "can I lend £20, dad".

I think it is a "local" usage, rather than national.

I seem to recall that, at school (1950s), we were regularly told ti use "may I", not "can I".
 

rualexander

Legendary Member
We watch a lot of USA films and TV programmes, the internet is dominated by USA language too, so eventually it was obviously going to filter into our British language.

Edit: I read a lot of USA books too.

But we watched plenty of American films and TV programmes in the 60's and 70's too, but it didn't influence our language as much.
 
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