[bianca]

I've lived both in the US, Virginia, and in England, Berkshire, although originally I'm Swedish. I've noticed that the American accent is growing in popularity even in England, with Am. words and phrases being taken over by the Brits, and even in Sweden (such as "jaywalker", "chores" and so on). Especially teenagers, my students for instance, are fond of Am. E., and they try to imitate the accent from TV, or long to travel "over there" as they say, to the land where everything happens. British E. was once "lingua franqua" in the world, while a big colonial power, but Am. E. has kind of taken over (with the US current position in the world...). I prefer AmE, probably due to my long stay in America, not to mention the Am movies, music and so on,which impacted me greatly. The spoken language is full of slang and colloquialisms everywhere you turn, and that's the beauty of it. On the other hand, written/formal Am English seems to be following the conventions of correct British English. As is the case with accent, the written E is still a matter of prestige. Seems to me that the English language doesn't "belong" to England anymore, as was the case way back, but it has become a worldwide language, a maze of "Englishes", as it were.