To ask why some Mumsnetters find the use of American English suspicious?

[MonaLisaDoesntSmile]

Some while back I wrote a thread under another username, and was accused by a few members to have written a fake story because I used words that are much more commonly used in the US. For the record, I learned English as a second language and my secondary school teacher was from the US, I also spent my teens watching American shows and films. 15+ years in the UK and I still use flashlight, trashcan, gas, fall, intersection and a number of other words that got stuck in my head.
I have it happen since a few times to other people- today someone decided a thread posted by a user was done by chat GTP because it sounded 'American'.
Why are people so baffled by the fact that there may be American users on the site, or people educated in the US/international American schools, or just people who have learned English with the help of American media rather than BBC?

Are you still going on about this?

Snobbery. Some people like to act superior to anything they deem "American " even when its pointed out its something that originated in the UK.

"Mom" for example is dialect in parts of the UK!

Because they are small minded and have lots of opinion even when they haven't travelled much and seen the real world beyond the sensational news they consume.

I think most of us know that there are people from outside The UK on here but it is true that a lot of the "dubious" posts sound like they are written by people who don't have English as their first language or who use many non UK terms
Its not enough on its own to arouse suspicion but in conjunction with the username and odd content it can make people think the poster isn't genuine.

I think it's because most other online English language spaces are totally dominated by Americans and their concerns and their ideas (and their politics). It's so rare and precious to have a non-US dominated space online.

I think this is a particular issue for the UK (and maybe Aus/Can/etc) because we share the language but not the culture. If we were on an Italian forum it wouldn't come up.

Is there an outside from the UK 😆

That's a very american outlook!!! 😁😁

It can be just as bad explaining culture differences between Scotland, Northern Iskand, Republic of Ireland, Wales, England London. (London is separate there for a reason!)

Do I know you? I think you mistook me for someone else 😂
First time I posted about it ever.

It's dark and full of terrors, but it exists :P

I totally get wanting to have a UK space that has not been Americanised. But why do Sherlock Holmses of Mumsnet assume the posts/posters are fake just because of vocabulary? I understand saying "We dont say that here", not the "The story didnt happen, because you wrote intersection rather than crossing".

Because so many fake posts use American terms and/or have odd phrasing.
That by itself doesn't mean something is fake or didn't happen but it does make people wonder so in combination with other things it raises suspicions

If I see a post using the word gotten or store or Mom (although I have now learned from mumsnet that it is used regionally which I didn't realise. Every day is a school day) I would assume the writer was either American or had been taught American English or had picked up Americanisims from tv or something. But that's as far as my thought process would take me. No judgement or suspicion or snobbery (as a PP has suggested). Just noticing something slightly unusual in the UK, this being a mainly UK site.

I bet if there was a US site people might pick up on the word Mum or spellings like colour but there's no problem with that, surely?

Posters are usually only suspicious if the thread itself has something else off about it. If the thread itself seems likely or not deliberately goady etc I doubt most people care, but there is so much made up guff on here these days that looking at how it is written is just part of the deduction process (as ChatGPT does have a habit of doing this) because many posters are fed up of being used to whip up froth.

agreed and it also smacks of the "them and us" that small minded need to have the drama, someone to battle.

It's because of theamount of AI threads lately. People are now uber vigilant. It's not just the americanism imho, it's also the writing style which sets people off.

I also learned abroad, my teacher wasn't even from English speaking country, on mainly US TV, but we had Oxford books. So I pronounce some things as US, but write as UK.

A lot of us authors have just got burned - we've had our entire content illegally scraped to 'teach AI'. No payment, just our books pirated and used so that AI can be more convincing. It's made a LOT of people very very suspicious about AI and ChatBots and where and when they might be used. So we can be a bit sensitive about anything we perceive as AI-generated.

We don't mean to be, but it's a knee jerk response.

Because AI generated posts tend to use American English.

Just to say I’m not anti AI, I love ChatGPT and use it a lot myself. What I’m fed up of is people making a mockery of the female users of this site, posting fake crap to whip women up into a frenzy and watch them go.

I wrote my post 4 years ago, waaay before AI was a thing.
The suspicions around the use of American English are not new. Chat GTP is a new thing (I hate AI and the extent it's used in Arts etc, but it's another matter).

Well it’s good you don’t hold a grudge OP

But you quoted a thread that was written yesterday as your example. I wasn't talking about your previous post I was talking about now.

Tell it 'Please use British English in your replies to me' and it will.

There are vast cultural differences between all the major English speaking countries.

When my Mother visited the States for the first time in the 1970’s I remember her utter horror at American table manners and how forks shovelled through food were held in the right hand only. Beasts of the field was quoted if I remember correctly.

You wouldn’t like my MIL she speaks as if she has fallen out of an Austen novel, I rather love it. I think it’s great there are vast differences in languages. I quite like the feeling of my teeth grating when Americans say aluminium and I’m sure they feel the same about my pronunciation.

One of my American exchange students was delighted when I let him change a module, he told me it was totally awesome! whilst I love youthful enthusiasm I was surprised at how such a simple administrative change could induce awe.

And why is that a problem? English is my second language. My grammar and vocabs might be sketchy at times. I majored in tech and science, not literature. But at least I know the difference between there and their 😂