#and since I'm only fluent in English I'd still be writing the everyone else in English

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Somebody stop me before I do something stupid like abandon 200k+ words of isekai fanfic I've been working on and having fun with to write the exact same thing only the isekai'd character doesn't share a language with the world she's been isekai'd into

Because I'd totally do it.

[sunshinemarauder]

(Part 1/2) Hello! Can I rant about something for a—or rather few—minutes? I've seen quite a few people complimenting others by saying that their English is very British/English-like. While I get that it is a compliment, I really don't get it. About 360 million people speak English as their first language. So, why are the British—and sometimes the Americans—still our barometer? Quite frankly, I'm sick of people giving me that compliment. The number of time colleagues or interviewers have said...

(Part 2/2) …this to me is truly astonishing. Just because I know more than one language, it doesn’t mean that I’m automatically 50/50, 60/40, or 70/30 at them. I can know two languages completely, and be fluent in them. I hope you don’t mind me saying this, because it got rather annoying and I felt the overwhelming urge to tell someone. Thank you for indulging my rant.

Hi anon! Always free to send me random, rambling asks :)

I have to say that the first thing I thought of was British/American English in fanfiction lol because I've been trying to write more 'British-y' since HP is set in England (and been failing, spectacularly, hence why I need an English beta to correct all my Americanisms). So I think in that case specifically it makes sense for people to compliment writing that seems authentically English.

There is also something else I've seen often - there are people who compliment native English speakers on how good their English is (like me) even though English is basically the only language I'm fluent in, and I was born & raised in the US. That's definitely because I'm a person of color so the assumption is that English wasn't my first language, or that I'm not 'American' because my skin isn't white. Newsflash, I was born here, and I'm just as American as them.

Anyway, I know that's not what you were talking about, but I get what you mean too! We should be asking ourselves why British/American English is the only 'right' way to do it.

Another angle of this discussion is about genuine compliments. I've taken French in school, and if someone complimented me by saying my French seems authentic, I'd be delighted, because my curriculum was likely not completely accurate to actual French.

I think it's important to recognize how everyone always assumes that the rest of the world follows Western habits, esp America and England. I'll be the first to say that I'm guilty of this, and I'm sure I've incorrectly assumed that some American things are universal at least once.

I will say that I'm probably not the best person to respond to this because I'm only fully fluent in English, and a partially fluent speaker who can't read/write in my mother tongue, so I haven't had this experience as much as others surely have.

Anon, thank you for sending this ask! It was very interesting! :)