h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

are there any survival tactics? what is the outcome of the poor country that goes thru americanisation? and what about the increasing trend for the people in the country itself to want to dress different (which means they actually are all dressing alike.)

An alternative term for this is Coco-colonialism. This has been used in academia to refer to a number of things (all very boring - global business trends etc.). However, I have heard it used in more interesting ways. One such instance is the ever apparent tendancy for McDonalds to appear on every street corner throughout Europe. My personal favourite however is the americanisation of the English language. OK languages are fluid entities and always will change but this should be through natural evolution rather than because too many English speakers are watching American television programmes.

The appearence of phrases such as "hey you guys" or "don't do...." (as in "don't do walking" for example) are horrible examples. They don't even make sense. "Hey you guys" seems to refer to male & females and "don't do..." is often used to create hideous sentances making little grammatical sense.

Let's try to keep are languages separate from the American tongue which barely makes any sense at the best of times.

i read somewhere a quote with this being the jist:
england and the united states- are two countries separated by one language.

hrm.
how did american english get so much different than english? there are silly spelling differences, and my american accent was not understood by some brits...

i dislike the mcdonalds (and the strange lifestyle that has evolved from fast food.... mega-scary-stores that have everything one could ever need, the need for speed...) and it is sad to hear that mcdonalds is popping up on every corner.. yikes...

I would like to point out at this stage that is is not America and Americans per se that I dislike. On the contrary I am very appreciative of many American artists and the contribution they have made to the arts world (how for example can Bob Dylan be considered a negative facor?). However I feel that to much of British and, in particular English, culture is being usurped by American ideas.

We now have a high proportion of American television shows on our television screens not least the all pervasive chat-shows along the lines of Springer and Winfrey. What is worse than this is that American presenters who, I'm convinced, have failed to get work in thier own country (Ruby Wax springs to mind) are now presenting British programmes.

This may seem trivial but our children are growing up thinking that Britain and America are one in the same place. This can't be desirable for either countries with such differing attitudes towards so many thing.

i on the other hand dislike like certain americans, or certain characteristics that i see everyday....

but i've never thought how the tv would influence kids... because as an american, mostly all shows are american... but i have heard recently, that because of american kiddy shows teaching the alphabet (which the pronounciation on some letters is different) is causing confusion on letters in the alphabet.... i wonder if british kids are picking up more of an american accent.

but then again, i don't like most of what is on tv- so i don't watch it.... *shrug*

I am not sure about general speech but children over here do tend to play act in an american accent. More so than accent I think the use of certain phrases is more predominant. Whilst often said in an american accent I think this is more to do with the actual phrase and where it was heard than the adoption of a language.
Having said this can I draw attention to the word schedule. In British English this is pronounced "shedual" where in America it would appear to be pronounced "skedual". On a recent train journey the conductor continually used the American pronounciation. Perhaps this is the beggining of a trend?

a rather odd thought- but didn't the french start to ban english (in some odd way) because they felt their language was being destroyed by english word usage....
all of a sudden there has been a lot of adverts in french or stuff dealing with french, or even a big show was done half in french. (odd for a country where the isn't a second language, closest thing to it is spanish- few people know anything beyond english)
perhaps the next thing will be england trying to get rid of the americanizations.. (or start influencing american kids with the teletubbies and also monty python and mr bean-- but these are prolly out numbered by the american influences on england...)


the language influence on kids might form british english and american english together..... but i doubt...
but tv has started to wipe away regional accents... (most shows have americans without a regional accent)
i wonder what english shall sound like in 20 years w/ all the new technology age's influences...