LordOfLincoln, I love you. That is exactly what I would have written had somebody not already said it. Thank you so much for restoring my faith in British people actually caring about their language! :)

You're welcome. It's about time the Yanks realised that they don't rule the world and they originally came from Jolly Old England. I live near New York and Boston. Not their copycat towns full of overweight self-indulgent dipshits. Long live the Queen!

LordOfLincoln - I respectfully disagree. There's nothing beautiful about the English language - at least from a pronunciation and rules perspective - regardless of where you're from. Oops - I just ended a sentence with a preposition. Why is that considered incorrect? But it is. Oops - I just started a sentence with a conjunction. Why should that be wrong? As an example, how is it beautiful to have "though", "thought", and "through" all pronounced completely differently? The rules of the English language are entirely ridiculous, which is why English is considered one of the most difficult languages for a non-English speaker to learn.

Though, thought and through are all spelt differently. "live tv show" and "I live in England"...now that's confusing...if you suffer from a very low IQ. Maybe that's why Yanks think they have to change everything to suit their taste? Is this why they remake perfectly good English TV shows (The Office, Life on Mars, Sherlock)? Does the entire nation struggle to understand basic grammar and humour (not humor)? The Yank population needs to start being more accepting of other cultures, and especially the culture that created their nation in the first place. The English language and culture should not be poisoned by the mass ignorance of the American colony.

Right, because one case of flag-waving swollen nationalist ego is so much better than another case of flag-waving swollen nationalist ego. Because one set of arbitrary stupid lingual rules that accomplish nothing in particular is superior to another set of arbitrary stupid lingual rules that accomplish nothing in particular. Because ramming pointless extraneous silent vowels into words makes them more "beautiful" and removing them "ruins" them. Because your language is the pure original font from which all language flows and not just another brick in a miles-tall tower of bastardizations and alterations of languages that came before it and existed alongside it. Love the use of "colony" though. Using it to dismiss an international superpower based on its now irrelevant geopolitical origins is such an adorably petty little swipe. It's like watching a tiny kitten trying its hardest to wrestle a grown bull elephant to the ground. (Not that the status of a country's economic, military, or diplomatic clout should have any role in interpersonal discussion anyway) But putting all the hypocritical nationalist posturing aside, total agreement on the stupidity of xenophobic remakes of everything under the sun. Those are just ridiculous.

In retrospect, never mind. Anyone who can only conceive of the concept of "cultural tolerance" as "other cultures' tolerance of mine" had clearly damaged, or was born without, whatever region of the brain is responsible for introspection. Asking them to exercise it and think of their situation from a perspective besides their own is like asking a harbor seal to perform long division. It's just not something they're capable of, and that's really not their fault. I'll leave on the table my agreement on the stupidity of remaking movies/TV shows without all those "icky foreigners" in them, and bid adieu.

It's harbour. Not harbor. I'm glad you appreciate the deliberate hypocrisy of pretending that my language and my country is better and more important than yours. Now perhaps you'll understand how millions of us feel when your representatives give the same impression. The general arrogance of the American people is disgusting.

Considering how many people express those same opinions in straight-faced earnest? That's like "teaching" people that water is wet. You're demonstrating an experience everyone already knows, and those who would be guilty of the kind of jingoism you're protesting would only be made more rancorous by this kind of approach. Well done; you've accomplished nothing at all. It's a bit disingenuous to claim you're "pretending" when you continue to tout the superiority of unnecessary vowels, though. Unless that was just another stroke in your master plan of "preaching to the converted".

Maybe not, but I have enjoyed reading your replies including longer and lesser-known words...I'm glad that you feel the need to show your intellectual superiority this way. I hope that my inflammatory remarks can anger a nation/colony.

i'm going to resist the urge to correct this paragraph of yours, but i just wanted to say - I do correct people in real life. As do my friends and flatmates. Why? Firstly because we are all mildly intelligent human beings, and secondly because it is how we learn new words, and how not to sound like an idiot in front of people who we are not friends with, and who wont necessarily 'know what we mean' - Like prospective bosses in job interviews....

Except "learnt" is a legitimate word that does not require correction.