Non-native English speakers: did you learn American or British English?

British (Colour, favourite, flavour, etc.)

 

You should always learn Commonwealth English.

English is widely spoken throughout the Commonwealth and tends to favour the British standard, rather than the American standard. The only exception is Canada, where the US influence is strong. Having said that, I've noticed on EC that many Canadian members favour the British standard.

 

In Belgium, it was very much the British standard.
Spelling-wise, I only noticed that American spelling was different when I actually started working for an American company and I had people correct my spelling.

Pronounciation-wise, we're also encouraged to use the British English as a guide. Though since we're exposed to American English a lot more by TV and movies, most people do slant more American. Personally, I often get told people can't place my accent, which is the best compliment a non-native speaker can aspire to

 

I learned english in Canada, and they teach it with the american standard, but our teachers made us read mostly british literature. I also became much better in english after I practiced for several months with a british roomate, so I often get asked if I went to britain because my accent is slightly british

 

I learned American English in the Philippines. That's the main language the instructors/teachers use in teaching. I remember when I was in grade school, there were some time when we had to pay a fine if we speak Tagalog (main language of Filipinos) instead of English in class. It could be broken english as long as we speak it.

 

Just "English". My teachers never really specified. Probably because they were more interested in grammar.
Looking back, I can see that I was taught British spelling, but American idioms and phrases.
Don't even ask about my accent. Atrocious is too mild a word...

 

Hey, Brazilian girl here. In my country we generally learn American English through regular school (Elementary, Middle and High) or in particular schools exclusively focused on languages (or even English-only) learning. There are some particular-regular schools and English-only schools where British English is taught, but they aren't that common to find (like, I'd say 7 or 8 out of 10 language schools are Am Eng-based) and Brit Eng is generally seen as a language bonus here, not as a different standard.
Also, here's a curiosity: one of the biggest English-only school network of Brazil, named Cultura Inglesa (literally English Culture), is British-based, but seems like some people who had classes there said they actually teach American English looooool I don't know if this is real, but it's interesting to point and even to analyze. As we are closer and more influenced by the US it seems natural we learn their dialect. Anyway, I don't know if I explained it well, but I swear I tried haha

 

Where I come from, we were always taught the British standard. However, I have many German relatives who learn the American way (ie: highway instead of motorway; tom-a-to instead of tomato; etc.).

I spent most of my life in the UK, so I've learned British English. Despite being under the influence of American English (in TV, films, radio), it still feels different to actually hear it in person.

I think it would be most useful to learn British English as most of the countries in the commonwealth are still used to the old language. Except Canada, they're closer to America so they've adapted American English.

 

American English. That's also what we're mostly exposed to outside of school, on TV and in movies.

 

To be honest I'm not exactly sure...
I've been learning English for many years at school, and I had various teachers with different teaching methods. Some of them might have used AE, some of them BE. And when I was younger I had a hard time seeing the difference between AE and BE (and to this day I sometimes struggle with classification of some words as AE or BE).
Now I know that many schools in Czech Republic (and in Europe in general) prefer teaching British English, in the end I would say it's the American English that I learned, because I learned a pretty big chunk of English through media (internet, TV, video games, etc.) and many other people around my age did the same, and American English dominates the media, so...

 

We were taught British English in school, but I'm much more exposed to American English through the media so I prefer the American way of spelling/pronunciation. But I mix them up sometimes.

 

It's kinda complicated. I am half British but before I moved in the Anglophonic area, I watched a lot of American shows and youtubers with subtitles so I ended up picking up some of that slang though quickly lost it once I started school xp

 

As an American, I just want to add my 2 cents.

To be honest, I personally don't see a whole lot of difference between each dialect. There's accent, and some words that have different meanings. For example in England a fag is a cigarette. A lorry is a trucker. Maybe there's something I have missed, but in my honest opinion there's not much difference between the two.

 

I may have screwed up on the lorry part. I'm not the most educated on British terms.

 

i learned american english myself and my high school is teaching us british english. i also learned myself to talk with a british accent

 

Well my native language is portuguese, and I learned british english in school. I became more familiar with english through american movies/tv shows/etc though, that's pretty much how I got to speak it fluently. So I speak and prefer american english over british english

 

British. This is what theybtaught at school. And which is clever, considering UK is much closer than America to where I live, and I'm far more likely to end up in the UK, which actually happened.