What is global English 
American or British

Introduction:

When most people hear the phrase Global English, they already have a pretty good idea of what it means. This means that when writing or speaking in this global English, we must pay special attention to the sentence structure in such a way that it is understandable by all the speakers of the world. But you should also keep in mind that it doesn't seem unusual for native English speakers. By translating that English into another language, its meaning shouldn't change. It is desirable not to use idioms or proverbs in sentences.

The Global English writing style should be such that it does not convey the wrong message to other speakers. The procedure for using a product or the rules for correctly assembling the parts of any gadget should be easily understood. If not, it may cause a lot of danger or trouble. Due to the simplicity of global English, its demand is increasing all over the world. Moreover, the simple overall syntactic structure of English sentences is very easy to learn. In the age of internet usage, where English is very important, we must ensure that everyone in the world can understand and benefit from the language.

  

We know that just as there is a great distance between Great Britain and the United States, there is also a great difference in the way they express their ideas. Now, let's look at the differences between British English and American English with some examples and a brief discussion. 

By the way, I hope you know well that this blog is for non-English speakers who are trying to learn English for their survival. And I also believe that by seeing the title of the article you have already guessed that the topic of today’s article is whether we should learn British English or American English or Global English.

Comparison of American and British English:

Our new football team are often losing the game.           
Our new football team is often losing the game.            
 
I take it for granted that you too are one of the ESL learners like me.
By the way, out of these two sentences shown above, will you be able to guess which one is grammatically correct?  
I bet if you pull out all the hairs on your head you still won't be able to guess.
 
If you ask me why I say this, wait, I'll answer the question now.
Not only that; if you ask the same question to any native English speaker, even they will be in trouble and will not be able to answer it. They also will be puzzled by this question. And finally, all the native English speakers will start fighting with each other, but the problem will remain unsolved.
There is a great controversy with this particular saying, "England and America are two countries divided by a common language.”
The argument is about who was the first man to declare this. Some say it was Oscar Wilde who first uttered the saying, others suggest the name Winston Churchill, and lastly, some say it was George Bernard Shaw. On average, it seems that most of them try to point out his name the most. 

https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-in-white-long-sleeve-button-up-shirt-11036125/

Differences between British and American English:

However, the cobbler must stick to his last. I mean, I should just stick to what I know and oil my own machine. Do you know that we are those unlucky fellows who have to learn English at any cost? Our fault is our mother tongue is not English. But believe it or not, we all want to learn the English language from the bottom of our hearts. It is because we know well that there is no other alternative. And that is why without taking proper care of our health, without eating or sleeping, we keep ourselves busy learning and practicing the English language. And at the same time, we keep on thinking that one day will definitely come when we will be able to take a grip on this English language. Then we won't have any more problems, everything will be as easy as water.
 
We learn so many things in our grammar books. Until today I have not seen a single grammar book that is less than 500 pages. They are all damn thick books! And by no means can you fully account for all grammar rules, including their exceptions. And now here, at the starting point of my study of grammar rules, I am stuck on the first chapter.
 
There I was studying the rules of collective nouns. There I found some of the collective nouns like 'team', 'group', etc. which are sometimes used as singular numbers and other times as plural numbers. Failing to solve the problem by myself, I seek the help of Aunt Google. I googled some sentences with the word ‘team’ and I found some sentences. Among them, one is, ‘Our new football team are often losing the game.’ My head started spinning when I noticed that many websites were bringing different opinions based on their ideas. A certain site boldly declared that the above sentence was grammatically incorrect and that its correct form would be “Our new football team is often losing the game.
What a mess! Who should I listen to?
After collecting different opinions from many famous sites, I finally realized that this was a problem related to British and American English. The UK people use the plural verb after the collective nouns ‘team’ or ‘group’. They say ‘Our new football team are often losing the game.’ To them, this is the correct version.
Again, after the very same word 'team' or 'group', Americans consider the singular verb to be correct. They say, ‘Our new football team is often losing the game.’ To them, this is the correct version. To them, it is a natural sentence.
So finally what is the result of the argument? So, it is decided that both sentences are grammatically correct as per their country’s way of expression. When a certain country considers it as correct, some other country considers it incorrect.

Which English should I learn? UK or US:

Now my question is, we non-English speakers who want to learn the English language, what should we do? By the way, this is not my made-up story. Those of you who can search well on any topic can try this type of phrase; you will notice that the confusion is endless. My readers, who have already gone through my previous article “IN’ or ‘ON’ which is right?”, the link is provided here for your reference: https://correctyoursentence.blogspot.com/2022/11/in-or-on-which-is-right.html, there I have already discussed the ‘Google Book Ngram Viewer.’ Here once again I would like to reuse the same app to bring to your notice. Seeing within the app you will clearly understand that great confusion has occurred between the two countries. So, what is to accept and what is to discard? It is proved that both are equally correct. Check the image and you will get an idea of the confusion that is created between the two countries.

the football team are

the soccer team is

Here I cannot resist my temptation to tell you about a funny thing that is happening now.

‘Grammarly’ is considered to be a world-class grammar checker. I tell you the truth; after recovering from a shock, it has to admit that both sentences were perfectly grammatically okay. I had the intention to show the image of this app as well, just like the Ngram Viewer; but there is strict checking is being conducted based on policy violations. So I had to destroy my own created picture by myself. Tell me honestly, if this continues, how are we going to learn English? What will we learn and which will we learn? Till now, I have shown you only one problem out of so many. Wait for more to digest the rest.

Inconsistency in spelling: 

In the Google search, it has been noticed that "a kilogramme" has about 1,07,000 results in (0.43 seconds) and on the other hand, "a kilogram" has about 20,30,000 results in (0.47 seconds). That means, here, in my opinion, in this context Americans are ahead in terms of language popularity. Here it is seen that the spelling ‘kilogram’ is used nearly twenty times more than the British English word ‘kilogramme’. The image below is proof of my speech.

a kilogram of

a kilogramme of

Here I also notice something much more fun about us the non-English speakers. The Americans are quite okay and comfortable with their “A kilogram of something”. On the other side, the Brits have no problem if they know only “A kilogramme of something“. But for us, it is not fair enough to know only one of the previous two phrases; we must know and learn both phrases. We have to learn the different expressions of both countries. Sorry, to be precise, we must learn both the expressions of the two countries. English people may be from any country and we must be ready for all of them to welcome in their particular style. So it is important for us to learn both expressions. This is our liability. They will expect to hear from us in their own way, won’t they? We are obliged to follow them. It is because we are trying to learn their language for our own benefit. They didn’t force us to learn it, right? 

One more example:

It is said: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Check the sentences below and try to figure out what’s exactly happening there.    

I learned this math in school.

I learnt this maths at school.

Do you find any dissimilarity in the above two sentences? Which one is preferable? Have you noticed that the meaning of the two sentences is exactly the same, yet you notice the difference between the main verbs? Have you noticed the prepositions used in them? Those prepositions are used in similar contexts and situations. Note that the verbs used in the two countries are completely different, even the prepositions used in the same context. The fact is that what everyone in a country feels comfortable saying in a specific pattern gradually becomes the language of the country. 

Another example:

Now, I would like to show you some funny thing that is happening in the UK now. As I mentioned earlier that ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do'. Nowadays there is the effect of globalization across the globe. We all are trying to be similar. Everyone eats and dresses the same, their likes and dislikes are the same, and everyone tries to look alike in every way, just like robots. They call it the effect of globalization. I may be wrong in my thinking, but you cannot easily ignore my words. I believe Google now is the most used search engine across the globe. And I also know that most people of the world are searching for their content in the Google search engine. And, as you all know that Google is an American Establishment. Its competitors are not in a position to compete with Google. And it is quite natural that Google will use its own American English, right? I will try to give hard evidence of the impact it has also had on children in the UK.

The ceremony begins on Friday evening.

The ceremony begins Friday evening.

‘The ceremony begins on Friday evening’ is the most natural way of expression in the UK. And while Americans care less about these things, they express the same phrase this way: "The ceremony begins Friday evening."

And so now it has a huge impact on the new generation of children in the UK who have started using the American language. It is not that it did not create controversy. But who obeys whom? We want to avoid swimming against the current. We all like to go with the flow because it is easy. The new generation in the UK will run towards the ease of normalcy, won't they?

begins on Friday

begins Friday

English is changing:

No language remains the same everywhere. If you look at your own mother tongue, you will notice that there has been a massive change in the language pattern that you had just a hundred years ago. And this is changing very quickly. Naturally, exactly the same thing is happening in the English language as well. Does the pattern of the current English language bear any resemblance to the English of Shakespeare?

Suppose you want to say, ‘You have a book.’ Do you by any chance mistakenly use the expression like ‘Thou have a book.’? Or, instead of saying ‘John gave you a book.’ you say ‘John gave thee a book.’? Or, for ‘John gave you a book.’ do you say ‘John gave thee a book’’? Trust me; this was the normal way of expression during the period of Shakespeare. If you try to read a few lines from Shakespeare, you will notice the fact immediately. Therefore, if we can accept the change, it will be good for us.

What is Global English?

Global English is the type of writing or speaking that people whose mother tongue is not English from all over the world, can read and understand fluently. You can consider Global English as an easier form of Standard English. It has certain rules to follow. Many call it World English and some call it International English.

What are the key features of Global English?

1. Generally, the proverbs or idioms are avoided here so that inconsistency doesn’t occur among non-English speakers.

2. The unnecessary passive voice is avoided in the language.

3. At the same time, it is also kept in mind that native English speakers also find it natural sounding. 

4. The style of the language is kept simple and literal.

5. Sufficient care is taken care that there should not have any type of ambiguity in the expression. 

For example, if the technical manual is misunderstood, there may be a loss or a disaster. No normal human being wants that to happen. It is the main intention that most people in the world can understand the language. And it is obviously desired, isn’t it?

Global English vs. Standard English:

Now let us talk something about Standard English.

The English spoken by people in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc is considered Standard English. If you observe you will notice that their sentence structure and their choice of words are all different from what we do. You will notice that they have the tendency to introduce local ornamental expressions in their wordings. In their writings, they tend to leave a sense of continuity or clarity or of the writer's own style of expression. And it's completely normal. In all countries, they have their own style of expression in their language. But if writing needs to be spread globally, then the only solution is to use Global English instead of the Standard English of a particular country.  

Why is Global English important?

I think you agree with me that the world is getting smaller. Most people are getting used to using English words in their own language. I don't know if you have noticed or not that while talking to someone in English if you have the opportunity, ask them about their mother tongue. You see, most of the time they will say that they are not native English speakers. Therefore, it proves that we have to learn Global English.

Conclusion: 

The ceremony begins Friday evening.

The ceremony begins on Friday evening.

Which of the two previous sentences would you consider correct and which one would you learn? My suggestion is, to read and listen to all types of English and try speaking them in front of the mirror. You will feel which English is to be learned and why. It is better that you learn global English and try to use them clearly and in a simple way so that all understand you.  

So no more today, I'll be back soon with a new topic; until then, stay well and stay away from those thoughts about which you should learn British English or American English; and focus more on learning Global English so that you improve your English learning faster. I hope you enjoy this article. I can't wait for a brief comment from you. Thank you!