"American" language - nice one. I'm English and I wouldn't mind at all if the language Americans speak was referred to as American :-)

My wife is Dutch and knows the rules of the English language far better than I do. I don't think I was ever taught the rules, people just spoke English around me and it sank in by osmosis. She'll correct the kids with something like "no, when it's ending in an 'e' it's always 'ley' in the first person singular" - and I sit there and think about it for a while and I reach the same conclusion but with no idea that there's a hard fast rule for getting there. My wife worked for a dentist when we lived in California and all the staff (all Americans...) would come to her if they needed something writing correctly in English.

I think it's because "foreigners" who learn English learn it purely and un-adulterated without the influence of slang and regional dialects or accents which American, English and Australians have to deal with... At least half of England cannot understand what the whole of Scotland is talking about.

FWIW - I also thought it was "$50 (which is) less than I usually earn."

Jeremy



[This message has been edited by jeremy_norbury (edited 03-08-2004).]