Americans Help Me

[SIMIN]

Hello

I have a question regarding English!

Strange huh?

But my English is poor!

Anyway, is this sentence correct?

 

"I prefer to apply filter to my web site rather than the government."

 

I want to say that if I don't apply filtering to my site, the ****ing government will do! So I prefer to do it myself instead of government!

Did I say it correct at the above quoted sentence?

Thank you.

[PlausiblyDamp]

I would tend to phrase it as

I would prefer to apply filters to my web site rather than have the government do it.

 

By the way us English people speak English too, not just Americans ;)

[Diesel]

I liked the direction it was headed at first:

 

 

I would prefer to apply filters to my web site rather than have the ****ing government do it.

[PrOpHeT]

I just had to add...

 

You will likely find more people speak English outside the United States than in it.

Sadly "American English" has become a horrid amalgamation of colloquialisms distorted further by regional accents that twist the quintessential phonics beyond recognition. That combined with an abysmal education system equates to what seems to be a quasi-illiterate nation.

 

The sad part is that it is not really always the case; I was raised in the Deep South and fought the slaughter of the language for as long as I can remember. I knew many people of above normal intelligence that you would have likely passed off as uneducated based solely on the manner by which they spoke. Conversely I do business with people all over the world, many of which though not English or American spoke with more clarity while using their non-native English language skills than the majority of Americans I know.

 

It reminds me of an old joke...

 

Question: If you speak two languages you are bilingual, if you speak three languages you are trilingual, what then are you if you speak but one

language?

 

Answer: American

[Nate Bross]

[Even though this is an old thread] -- At the risk of sounding pecksniffian, I would like to add that while many American's speak only one language, its because going from state to state in the US, the 'national' languages doesn't change. In Europe going from Germany, to France, to England you go through three different 'national' languages. So we [Americans] have less need to speak multiple languages than other people.

 

I do agree, that different areas of the US speak drastically different English, and that lots of educated people are taken for uneducated based on how they speak.