American English and British English,
which one is proper English?
Regarding the mutation and progress of language, Alcock and English people in his days had same kind of experience what he saw the conflict between Japanese and Dutch speaker, with Americans who spoke their English.
He wrote,
(Japanese Dutch learners regards) “all more modern phraseology being spurious; like our descendants in New England, who have preserved so many obsolete phrases that they pique themselves on maintaining, with greater success than the English themselves, the language of the old country ‘pure and undefiled’”.
It is interesting for me that while English in Britain those days thought their language was modern and progressed English, people in New England (America) believed their language is pure and undefiled English. I guess many Japanese assume American English is somehow newer than British English because of simple comparison of those two country’s history. But reality of two styles of English is more complicated.
