fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2714 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2714 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #388.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm American, and I think changing your spelling is stupid. Neither is more correct than the other, and it shouldn't matter, as long as the characters are speaking in a way that is appropriate for their location. Exception would be, I suppose, if you are writing out some kind of note that a character received, or something to that extent.

On a related note, I'm going to be attending school in the UK in the fall, and have had to seriously overthink how I correspond with the school people there. Do I refer to my "program" or my "programme"? Especially when responding to someone who has just written the British spelling? Does insisting on American spelling make me seem like a stubborn American, or does using the British spelling make me seem even more annoying, or like the British version of an obsessed otaku? lol my life.

I can't speak for people from the UK, of course, but Canadians just expect Americans to use American spelling. It's not wrong, it's just how they do things. If you used programme, that would be fine of course, but if you used program, no one would even blink. (...Though to be honest, if an American used programme, I might look at it a bit like a dog riding a bicycle ;p)

Of course the British might be more aggro about it, but I expect the worst you'd get is a polite reminder to use British spellings in correspondence and course work.

Haha, thanks for the perspective. I personally find it annoying when my fellow Americans insist on using British spellings because it just ~feels more natural~ or go to the UK hoping/expecting to "lose their American accent" and come hope talking in a weird wannabe English accent. I don't want to come across that way.

But at the same time, it feels rude to use the American spelling when the person I'm e-mailing is using the British spelling. Or if I'm referring to a document with a title that uses British spelling, I feel like I should write the title as it's written, but that leads to a lot of inconsistency.

I can't speak for your friends, but some people just naturally pick up accents and speaking patterns of where they are. It's not some juvenile concept like ~wannabe English or something.

Naw, rude is snapping your fingers to get someone's attention (I don't know if it's the same way in the UK, but that's the only thing my American friends have done that's made me cringe); using American spelling is just what's expected. If you're really unsure about it, you could always ask. Citations and references and whatnot should be done with the original spelling, though.

Unless it's oxbridge they literally won't give the slightest damn unless they want to be uppity about it to prove a point, in which case they're not worth bothering with.

They'll know what you mean, just use what feels natural to you.

I didn't see this yesterday. Bad eye-brain coords, missing interesting posts!

If the fandom's American, or the original story's setting is American, I use American spelling and American vernacular. I just feel it's a good writing exercise, and it's also been appreciated by people who read my work. But I'm South African, and our spelling and grammar rules are identical to the British, so it took a bit of work and Eagle Eye efforts from betas, my current awesome proof reader, and my editor to make sure that I "wrote American, dammit." Now I actually have to concentrate and make up my mind to write using the British rules.

I have relatives and friends in several countries, and I find their emails to be awesome reference materials. I can manage to make characters "sound" like they're from any of those countries. I feel that one only gets true practice in that little art form by stepping outside one's comfort zones. "Writing American" helped immensely with that: I stopped automatically thinking up dialogue in my own vernacular.

[ SECRET POST #2714 ]

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling

Re: Inspired by Secret 7 - British versus American spelling