Letters: I'm American but my English is more British since move to France
Connexion reader says being around so many Britons while trying to speak more clearly to French people is having an effect
Reader says he unconsciously adopts an RP accent to be more easily understood by non-native speakers
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To the Editor,
As an American who has lived in or visited France often over the last forty-five years, I’ve experienced many of the changes mentioned in your article on how living in France affects your English.
In addition, I have noticed that my English becomes much more British when I’m living here.
Some of that is due to the fact that we know more Brits here in the Charente-Maritime than we do fellow Yanks. We are relatively scarce in these parts.
But I’ve also adopted a slightly more BBC (RP) vocabulary and tone when speaking with non-native speakers of English. It’s usually more in line with what they’ve learned and it often makes the conversation go a little more smoothly.
As one might imagine, I get mocked a bit when I first return to the States!
Also, when I arrive in France and change regions on my laptop, the auto-correct in several programs defaults to British spellings. I’ve largely given up trying to revert back to American English unless it’s really necessary.
I have a post-grad TESOL certificate and I am a linguistics nerd and I find all of this very entertaining.
Michael O’Toole, Barzan (Lot-et-Garonne)
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