This blog is written in en-GB • Hacker News Board

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#191

Post by PaulKeeble » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

jrm4 wrote: post #25

yde_java wrote: post #7

Being proud of your culture including your language and exercising it, at the risk of readers not understanding everything immediately, is not racism. In the worst case, a non-British gets curious about one expression or the other and looks it up. That's engagement.

It's funny, and perhaps not entirely unwarranted, that "racism" pops up here? As a Black American, I find the author's idea extremely interesting and naturally began to wonder -- what might this idea (in code?) look like for us? Owing to history and whatnot, the role "Black American English" might play is of course very much a moving target, but it's interesting to think about.

As one example I have seen plenty of Code read Color redColour = .....

That is how it often manifests, the bits the Brits get to choose is in their own language and spelling.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#192

Post by adolph » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

I think that "en-GB" is not sufficiently descriptive. There are 160 dialects of English [0]. Within the island of Great Britain there are three historic countries with distinctive usages of language: England, Wales, and Scotland. There might be more mutual unintelligibility within GB than across North America.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_English

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#193

Post by kelvinjps10 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

ChrisRR wrote: post #84

umeshunni wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm fairly sure they were referring to the americans that this post is about

And in the US you can see so many different cultures in one place

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#194

Post by justin66 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

mghackerlady wrote: post #50

[flagged]

> It seems more academic if that makes sense

I remember a naive cultural bias in the US towards regarding the English as possessing an elevated degree of education and refinement. I would have assumed the greater presence of truly idiotic British figures in American news media and comedy in recent decades might have clubbed that misconception to death like a baby seal.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#195

Post by Symbiote » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #45

biofox wrote: post #28

I am the only Brit in the department I work in. No one gets the cultural references or British idioms I use, and I've found myself significantly changing the language I use to a very utilitarian and direct style to prevent the endless blank stares... reading this blog post just made me realise that this self-editing has made my interactions rather more 'flat' and unnatural, as they now lack spontaneity, with everythi…

I live in Sweden (and have for 11 years), a lot of the "charm" in my speech has been filed away, I speak in a very neutral accent (which barely registers as british anymore) and I use americanisms a lot, avoiding "false friends". (IE; I never use the word "chip" to mean crisps or fries - I will instead use "Crisps", despite it being british, and fries, despite it being American; in order to avoid ambiguity.) The more…

I live in Denmark, and for such basic words (crisps, trousers, maths, aluminium, football, quid, couldn't care less, fire engine, motorway, petrol, public transport, railway, tram) I use my native British words.

People occasionally comment that it's a British word, but being misunderstood is so unusual I can't remember a recent example. Essentially everyone has read/watched Harry Potter, Dr Who or Midsomer Murders, and Europeans are probably ten times more likely to have visited the UK as the USA.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#196

Post by throwaway2037 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #23

gilrain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody said it was.

The article strongly implies it is a response to a comment complaining the blog is not inclusive because it uses British English. There is a constant American assumption that their language and culture is the norm and we should all adjust our language to fit their definitions and culture. I intend to keep eating faggots, having a master branch in git, etc.

    > There is a constant American assumption that their language and culture is the norm

You write it like it is a moral flaw in American culture. This cultural phenom isn't special to the United States. In my personal experience, any country with a large population suffers from the same: Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, India, China, etc.

    > having a master branch in git

This is a weird cultural battle to pick. In the 2010s, when renaming the git master branch was at its cultural zeitgeist, none of the Americans that I worked with did the rename. It was always someone not from the US who would raise the issue on a team call. It happened so many times that I asked a few of them why they did it. Almost all of them told the same rough story: They say a "nerd news story" about the trend, then did a little bit of reading on Wiki to learn about the cruel history of slavery in the United States. Motivated by this, they decided to do the rename. All in all, pretty wholesome stuff. Never once was it some weird social justice warrior type of bullcrap. But anyway, you do you: Keep rockin' the "master" branch in git.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#197

Post by mattlondon » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

onionisafruit wrote: post #102

ChrisRR wrote: post #80

Americans often don't twig how many random american terms we brits have to learn the double meaning of and don't pipe up about. I'm not talking the well-known ones like cookies, but even things like "the ER" meaning "A&E" Sometimes it's their turn to repay the favour

Sometimes Americans wonder why English characters start talking about a basic cable channel when they really should be seeking medical help.

Cable channel? Are you talking about fibre-optic frequency channels? What kind of cable are we talking?

Perhaps you can be more inclusive in your language on the future.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#198

Post by fmajid » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

His post inspired me to change form to , to make it clear I do not write in the British's quaint dialect of American.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#199

Post by nozzlegear » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

unfamiliar wrote: post #123

ChrisRR wrote: post #80

Americans often don't twig how many random american terms we brits have to learn the double meaning of and don't pipe up about. I'm not talking the well-known ones like cookies, but even things like "the ER" meaning "A&E" Sometimes it's their turn to repay the favour

If you want to read some hilarious reactions of Americans panicking when they are suddenly exposed to non-American English/British accents, check out these threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/PawPatrol/comments/1q68v16/british_... https://www.reddit.com/r/PawPatrol/comments/17wcsdm/my_digit...

I'm not sure "panicking" is the best word to describe a couple of parents wondering why the characters suddenly have different accents. But maybe I'm too American and "panicking" means something else for Brits.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#200

Post by edent » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

SadErn wrote: post #15

My first thought after reading is that I fear for the author's safety. From the outside, this does not appear to be a safe time to express nationalism or cultural pride in the UK. The Internet is not free in the UK and decreasingly so in the rest of the world.

OP here.

Fuck off.

Yours etc,