Conventions
Gretchen told me one day that it was my turn to post on our blog. And then she went and posted again. So now she is claiming that I have to post again, even though she is the one who posted out of turn. *sigh* Well, I guess there are worse things in life...
I'm sitting here in someone else's living room, listening to music from a baby monitor, and hoping not to hear any cries or screaming, as I currently have the sweetest babysitting gig ever. I get to come over, use the Internet, occasionally watch movies, and see one of my most favouritest young married couples in the world on a weekly basis. Of course, I don't charge to babysit, since they are going to end up doing a lot of babysitting for me in the future (I hope).
Anywho, I've been a member of an online community for about seven or eight years. Many of my friends there are from other nations, and therefore they use non-American English. But even before the intensive exposure to them, I developed a love for non-American spellings through the works of such amazing British authors as CS Lewis, Susan Cooper, and John Christopher. Reading books by authors like JRR Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, and, most recently, Isobelle Carmody, have only sealed that love for their spellings even more. Hence the reason I will forever be using non-American conventions, such as -our, -ise, and -tre as endings. It isn't because I went to Australia, although the practice was convenient. Incidentally, I have not adopted all non-American conventions. For example, I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with words like "tyre" or "kerb" although I can live with "bonnet" and "boot".
As a result of going to Australia, I have difficulty leaving a period inside a quotation mark, although I do use double quotations and single quotations according to American conventions, rather than non-American, which do the exact opposite. Other American conventions I tend to stick to include using punctuations after abbreviated titles, like Dr. , Mr., or Mrs.
Ultimately, I have developed my own conventions, which is sure to confuse the heck out of my students one day.
Hm... and apparently I've dropped the habit of saying "hell" and "damn" all the time, although I admit that those words are frequently uttered when I am driving by myself. Hey, sometimes I really do wish a particular traffic light got banished to outer darkness...
I'm sitting here in someone else's living room, listening to music from a baby monitor, and hoping not to hear any cries or screaming, as I currently have the sweetest babysitting gig ever. I get to come over, use the Internet, occasionally watch movies, and see one of my most favouritest young married couples in the world on a weekly basis. Of course, I don't charge to babysit, since they are going to end up doing a lot of babysitting for me in the future (I hope).
Anywho, I've been a member of an online community for about seven or eight years. Many of my friends there are from other nations, and therefore they use non-American English. But even before the intensive exposure to them, I developed a love for non-American spellings through the works of such amazing British authors as CS Lewis, Susan Cooper, and John Christopher. Reading books by authors like JRR Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, and, most recently, Isobelle Carmody, have only sealed that love for their spellings even more. Hence the reason I will forever be using non-American conventions, such as -our, -ise, and -tre as endings. It isn't because I went to Australia, although the practice was convenient. Incidentally, I have not adopted all non-American conventions. For example, I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with words like "tyre" or "kerb" although I can live with "bonnet" and "boot".
As a result of going to Australia, I have difficulty leaving a period inside a quotation mark, although I do use double quotations and single quotations according to American conventions, rather than non-American, which do the exact opposite. Other American conventions I tend to stick to include using punctuations after abbreviated titles, like Dr. , Mr., or Mrs.
Ultimately, I have developed my own conventions, which is sure to confuse the heck out of my students one day.
Hm... and apparently I've dropped the habit of saying "hell" and "damn" all the time, although I admit that those words are frequently uttered when I am driving by myself. Hey, sometimes I really do wish a particular traffic light got banished to outer darkness...
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