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“England and America are two countries divided by a common language."

 

This famous quotation comes from George Bernard Shaw, who was an Irish writer. He was born and raised in Dublin in 1856, but he spent most of his life in England. Shaw even received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1950 in Hertfordshire, England.

As he lived for more than 90 years, he was able to witness the First World War, the Irish War of Independence against the British government and finally the Second World War.

 With this quote Shaw tries to show the differences between two countries with the “same” language.

Many people don’t differ between American and British English, for them it is just English, however we have to know that there is a difference! Everything began in the 17^th century, when the English language was first introduced to the Americans. During the 18^th and 19^th century many people immigrated to America, which is the reason why it has been influenced by many other languages. America and Britain both developed into various directions concerning their language. That’s why there are nowadays many American words, which do not mean the same in British, or the other way round.

Of course this doesn’t apply only to England and America. There are also other countries, which have the “same”, but in a certain way a different language. For instance Austria and Germany: Both countries speak “German” however there is an extreme difference between the languages spoken in those countries. Many Germans even do not understand Austrians. For us it is very important to be aware of those differences, in order to prevent embarrassing misunderstandings or to appear as an ignoramus of culture.