I'm a Chinese, I think there's really a thing called American English, when we talk about American or British English we do not focus on the differences of phrases, but more on its pronunciation, even though a Texan accent and a New York accent is different but they do have a lot in common. Today's American English becomes more attractive (sounds better). back to the 1960's (from movies of that time I learn, e.g., the 7 year itch, Marilyn Monroe's voice sounds unnaturally babyish ), American English at that time does not sounds as good as today's and even somehow close to British.

We love American English not because any other influences like America being the super power, dominant global culture influence or big trade, but lies in the language it self. A similar case on the contrary is in China, Shanghai is a leading city, but Shanghai dialect sounds not good and even mean. Just like a song, nobody tell you its sweet or not, but you do have a feeling that this song sounds better than that song. And to me also many other Chinese, British English sounds like there are too many stresses and the speaker seems being a little nervous. Beckham is a big star, but we don't like his English, While Tom Hanks sounds much better even when he play a restarted man Forrest Gump.

If American English is tagged by many extra labels,I would say I like Canadian English the most.

No offense to any one

Question for John: you now mention Canadian English. Can you tell me the difference in Canadian English and American English??

For the nit-pickers: we know Canada is part of America - - so perhaps we should say United States English and Canadian English!!

At a dinner in Beijing a professor (whatever that means these days) from Cornell University sat and said very little while a table of around a dozen people from around the world sat and chatted eagerly. Finally from across the table eminent professor (what does THAT mean!) lent forward toward me and stated "English no longer belongs to the British'. My immediate thoughts, after being thrust into the spotlight, were '...... he's straight from the ministry of the bleeding obvious.' Conscious of where I was and the need to be polite, I could only reply with "It never did." In retrospect this feeble response may have saved him further embarrassment and me from getting too tribal.

Language does appear to evoke strong emotions, for example: ''Laotou, as a non-native English speaker, please keep your comments and opinions to yourself.'' The latter outburst I found shocking.

The IELTS (English test) does not favour either British or US English and strives to avoid cultural bias. Neither does it overly concern itself with grammar since the emphasis is more on the ability to communicate, at least at the lower and intermediate band levels.

British, US, Canadian, Indian or Chinese English is surely no more an issue than choosing between two brands of good beer, just as long as communication takes place?

As to the original question? Much the same as the choice of beer, I may have a preference, but in the end who cares.

Flames notwithstanding - I re-read my first post and I really do sound like a pompous _ss. However the emotions behind the flames also show diversity in opinion and impact. It was truly fascinating to see the incredibly diverse range of opinions and perspectives on a seemingly simple query. And I welcome John Xie's opinion which adds a domestic element to the comments. Quite lively!

As I see Canadian English is almost the same as US English. I really don't know theire diffrences. I can tell a person is from UK or US or Australia from his accent, and I see Austrlian accent is standing somewhere between UK and US and a little closer to UK. by the way, I don't know the accent diffrences within Uk, England, Scottland, and welsh. I preciate if someone could have an intruduction on this.

There's a story, I have a Canadian co-worker, right at the US election year, I ask him, " who will you vote for? Bush or John Kerry. " "they are not our president". It reminded me he's a Canadian.

John Xie, reference UK accents: general elections are looming in the UK. One possible way of listening to regional accents would be to get onto a UK news website with multi-media output and listen to sound clips from the leaders of the Welsh and Scottish Nationalist party leaders. The difference will be clear enough. However, you then have to bear in mind the Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh are just a few kilometers apart yet the difference in accent are stark.

For the regional accents of England: Listening to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Scot) will not help here. Perhaps regional news websites or radio programmes (Liverpool, Manchester, Devon and Cornwall) would give you a flavour of the mix of accents. BBC Radio 5 live (lots of 'phone in programmes) will provide you with a real potpourri.

On a slightly related matter: Chinese students often become overly concerned with pronunciation and accents yet I find they rarely interfere with communication. This is not something I could say for a strong Glaswegian accent or some speakers in the south east of London.

Possibly one of the purest and easiest British accents can be heard spoken by the inhabitants of the Shetland Isles, way up to the north of Scotland.

English whether American or British is still a foreign language in China.Who cares??

Hi nnoble, thank you very much for your introduction in detail.

I know it's an old post and all that crap but... since Google thinks this is a webpage relative to my search, I'll go forward and comment.

I'm a native English speaker so maybe my opinion will actually matter. Having said (written?) that I'll postulate that the only person who makes any sense is Onobaron.

The silliest comment is by hedgepig who was upset that an American couple didn't recognize the German word "abseil".

For all it's worth, English is the language (one language) and the discussion devolved into a bitch and moan session on dialects and accents. And as a native speaker, I can verify (personal experience) that there are native speakers in the US that can not understand each other (it's a big country and dialects can be dramatic).

Left out most important - - TEXAS ENGLISH!!