Where do you come from?

One night long long ago (maybe a month), Lisa and I spent the night nerding. No, we were not studying for some test we have. No, we were not doing a project. Yes, we were having an intense research/discussion about English. To be more precise, it's British English vs Canadian English vs American English. Before I go any further, I am going to say that I am going to bold the Canadian way of spelling the word and have the other way beside it (might be UK or might be USA, depends on the word). Note that I may be missing a lot.

It all started with me being angry at the mark I got on one of the assignment. They deducted my mark because I spelt/spelled parameter parametre. I always it's just another er and re thing, but apparently... there are exceptions. Should've known. English is almost the most complicated language ever created in the history of mankind. Every rule only apply to half of the words while the other half are exceptions. Seriously... Well, that's the event that got this night started. We went on google and started searching for "British American spelling". At least something good came out of this tragic event... totally made us realise/realize some of the differences between cultures. Truly amazing.

I don't know how else to introduce the other difference because there are some word that I'll never use in my blog, so I'm just going to come up with sentences.... enjoy. LOL

1. One day, Lisa bought Beatle's CD disc/disk, and she tried to rip it onto her harddisc/harddisk... but she got too excited and had diarrhea/diarrhoea.
British spell diarrhea diarrhoea... really? I've never seen that before.

2. I am pretty skeptical/sceptical about the British's way of spelling flutist/flautist... it's just too weird.
According to the website, Canadian spell sceptical both ways, and surprisingly sceptical is more common than skeptical.

3. Please beware of pedophiles/paedophile because most of them are quite skillful/skilful at what they're doing.
Same thing happened with skilful the way it happened to sceptical. Quite shocking actually.

Yea, I think three sentences should be sufficient. Just one last thing before I move on. According to the same website, the abbreviation for Doctor is Dr. right? Not if you're British! The reasoning on the website says "A contracted form of a word, ending with the same letter as the full form, is not followed by a full stop", so I am assuming it's the same for Ms., Mr., etc. I am Canadian though, so I shall spell it with a period at the end ;D!

So after the spelling difference, we moved on to speech difference. Example would be from this passage: "In both areas, saying, "I don't mind" often means, "I'm not annoyed" (for example, by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means, "The matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question like "Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable, an American may answer, "I don't care", while a British person may answer, "I don't mind". Either sounds odd to the other." ...Which one do you say?

Another website states that we, Canadians, start a sentence with As well, meaning 'in addition'... apparently that's a 'construction [of] Canadianism.' Do any of you do that??

Another speech difference is this one "While both forms are correct (and accepted in both British and American English), have got (have you got, he hasn't got, etc.) is generally the preferred form in British English while most speakers of American English employ the have (do you have, he doesn't have etc.)" Some example sentences are...

Do you have a car?
Have you got a car?

He hasn't got any friends.
He doesn't have any friends.

She has a beautiful new home.
She's got a beautiful new home.

One more difference...

American English - on the weekend
British English - at the weekend

American English - on a team
British English - in a team

American English - please write me soon
British English - please write to me soon

Soooooo after all this. Let me ask you one question.

Which country are you from?