British English vs American English

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I refer my honorable colleague to the answer I gave just days ago :

Here...

Yep, packet of fags is still in use.

I wish I could find a clip of Wayne and Waynetta Slobs "I'm having a fag" bit from Harry Enfield and chums...

Quote: gofaster87

Do they still use the term "fag" for cigarettes?

Quote: thecesspit

Yep, packet of fags is still in use.

I wish I could find a clip of Wayne and Waynetta Slobs "I'm having a fag" bit from Harry Enfield and chums...

There were a couple of comedy-action films (1968 & 1970) with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford playing London nightclub owners "Salt" and "Pepper" respectively. In one scene, they visit the campus of Pepper's British prep school (or whatever the proper British English term is). There, the nickname for an underclassman is "fag", and I don't think it related to the derogatory sexual reference. I vaguely remembering that it was suggested this was a common, taunting nickname for a school underling.

Is there any basis to that?

Oh yeah, public school boys had some sort of weird hierrachial system where the younger boys would "fag" for the older ones and do menial tasks.

I don't know if the etymology of "fag" ended up to mean a gay man from that or not.

I wasn't a public school boy so have no idea how it worked except from some works of fiction like Tom Brown's School Days.

Quote: thecesspit

I'd guess the Phillipines then if we are blaming the US...

The fifth one... hmm, I'm wondering if there's enough speakers in one of the bigger EU countries then?

As long as you weren't conflating the UK and England as a single entity, it's all good. My Scottish ancestors get rather upset about being called "English"...

I was very careful to call England a "constituent country". I know how upset the British get when Americans refer to the UK as England (as if we had missed the last 4 centuries of history).

Philippines and Germany. Germany has roughly 82 million people. About 25m - 35 m don't speak English. Like I said it's a fuzzy line.

So these are the countries (total population) with roughly the same or more English speakers than England (51.5m)
India-1,189,172,906
United States-313,232,044
Nigeria-155,215,573
Philippines-101,833,938
Germany-81,471,834


Of the other large countries none of them has close to 50 million English speakers. But there is a widespread impression that English is more widely spoken than it really is.

China-1,336,718,015
Indonesia-245,613,043
Brazil-203,429,773
Pakistan-187,342,721
Bangladesh-158,570,535
Russia-138,739,892
Japan-126,475,664
Mexico-113,724,226
Ethiopia-90,873,739
Vietnam-90,549,390
Egypt-82,079,636
Turkey-78,785,548
Iran-77,891,220
Congo (Kinshasa)-71,712,867
Thailand-66,720,153
France-65,102,719
Italy-61,016,804
Burma-53,999,804
South Africa-49,004,031
Korea, South-48,754,657

However, keep in mind when we say that the growth rate of the world is reducing, that just means that the number of babies has leveled off at roughly 130 million per year. It's been that way for about 15 years , and is predicted to stay at that number for the next 40 years. It is not going to go down for the foreseeable future. It just isn't going to go up.

Most of these new children are going to get at the internet. There is the potential to have a billion students of English (far more than all the teachers out there). I think online teaching of English could become huge.

Everyone understand English. You just speak LOUDLY and SLOOOOWWWWWLY and they get the message (/sarcasm)

Quote: pacomartin

Of the other large countries none of them has close to 50 million English speakers. But there is a widespread impression that English is more widely spoken than it really is.

Mexico-113,724,226

Since starting work, I've been amazed at how few Mexicans speak or even understand English to any significant degree. In high school and college, most people spoke English or could understand it.

Quote: Nareed

Since starting work, I've been amazed at how few Mexicans speak or even understand English to any significant degree. In high school and college, most people spoke English or could understand it.

Wikipedia says 5 million (far more than Nahuatl) based on an INEGI report but I have to think that is on the extreme low side. I would have guessed 5 million in the 75 mile zone along the border with the USA alone.

Estimates are often over 50 million Spanish speakers in the USA.

The Voice of America has news in special english which is a very slow, highly enunciated version of American English with a limited vocabulary. It's an aid to people who want to practice hearing English. I have never heard of the equivalent in other languages.

Quote: Doc

...the campus of Pepper's British prep school (or whatever the proper British English term is).

Quote: thecesspit

I wasn't a public school boy so ...

Ah! There's a reference that seems appropriate for this thread. I think I have heard that the terms "public school" and "private school" have exactly reversed meanings in UK and US. Is that correct?

In the US, a public school is one supported primarily or exclusively by public tax dollars, usually with no charge for the students attending, while a private school is supported by privately-held funds, usually charging tuition payments from the students (or, more likely, their parents).

Quote: pacomartin

Wikipedia says 5 million (far more than Nahuatl) based on an INEGI report but I have to think that is on the extreme low side. I would have guessed 5 million in the 75 mile zone along the border with the USA alone.

At the department I work for we're 12 people. Three, including myself, speak English. I'm the only one who's fluent. The other two, including the boss, can muddle along if they must, but when there's a work-related document in English it invariably lands on my desk. In fact my level of fluency is rather unusual. My siblings come near, but then we all had the same English teacher. They'd be at my level if they read more, I'm sure.

Anyway, along the border and in tourist areas like Acapulco or Cancun, there are plenty of epople who know a few words and phrases, enough to engage in simple, everyday transactions. If anything Spanish is more prevalent in the US side of the border than English in the Mexican side. In Laredo, TX, I vividly recall, all the personnel in the shops in the big Mall spoke Spanish. Many were Mexicans or of Mexican descent. I don't look Mexican, ask the Wizard, yet in Laredo few people spoke to me in English.

Curiously this wasn't the case in McAllen, TX, although if you used Spanish chances were better than 95% you'd be understood.