Being bilingual (English/Spanish) and having taught English in Latin America and Spanish here in the U.S. I have grown exhausted with linguistic elitism. I'm not referring this time to language snobs and their hatred of slang...but rather this petty, international "my country's dialect is better than yours" elitism that is mildly confusing in every day life, but infuriatingly obnoxious in academia.
British English vs. American English - which one is more correct? For the love of God and all that is holy they are both correct. They are both methods of communication that most English-speaking human beings with more than half a brain cell will be able to understand within context. Who cares if you say apartment or flat? They both mean the same damned thing, and within context of a real conversation or a real piece of text in a book or magazine, most people will figure it out. However, when I lived in Latin America and taught English there, regardless of my status as a native speaker of English from the United States, my English was regularly brought under scrutiny because I spelled and said things differently than the rest of my (British) colleagues, and the text books (most of which were published by Cambridge University). "Center" is just as correct as "centre" as is "theater/theatre" "favorite/favourite" etc. However, by the reaction I regularly got by students, colleagues and supervisors, you'd think my American usage was tantamount to teaching "I'm gonna talk 2 u l8er 2nite, k?" This was irritating enough, but at least I could always bring up the point that English is indeed my first language, and if they consult a good dictionary they would in fact see that several million people on this side of the pond accept my usage of the language as correct. Teaching Spanish here is a whole other issue...
Who's Spanish is "more correct" is a common matter of debate in the Spanish-speaking world. Ask anybody from any Spanish speaking country and they will usually have a list of which countries speak correctly, and which countries speak horribly. ("Oh, Spain's Spanish is so antiquated!" "Puertoricans only speak Spanglish!" "The Argentinians think they're better than everyone else but nobody can understand them!") And again, at my current job, I constantly run into the problem of my Spanish not being European enough. While thankfully the majority of my professors are familiar enough with Mexican Spanish to accept my usage as correct, the exchange students from Seville who visit every year are another matter. Some are nice enough, thinking they're taking this poor, ignorant American under their wing and helping her see the error of her ways. Others correct me as if I were their own student. This wouldn't be so incredibly frustrating if I weren't aware that millions of people all over Latin America speak precisely the same way that I do. I've been speaking Spanish since I was three years old. It's my second language, but a very close second. I grew up with more Caribbean Spanish, and then lived in Mexico for several years. However, you'd think by some people's reactions I was a first year student incapable of correctly stringing together a sentence. The more open-minded ones will give me a confused look when I use a more Latin American term for something, and once I explain to them what I'm saying they'll take me at my word that this is indeed how millions of people say this word. The elitist snobs will giggle and correct me patronizingly - "Oh no, I've never heard that word before. The correct term is ____." (They say this regardless of the fact that a quick google search or an actual conversation with people from this hemisphere will prove otherwise)
Guess what, world? There is usually more than one way to say something, and appearances are not always what they seem. Open your freaking minds, please.
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