American English now is mostly ebonics lol

It is perhaps better to dispense with the idea that there is only one English that is correct. In a nutshell American and British English are but two dialects of ENGLISH.

"They have enough respect for the language to use correct spelling, clear enunciation and to observe the correct use of prepositions and general grammar." SPELLING: Both forms are only different and are acceptable in their forms. Consistency in spelling within the same document i.e. British or American is important and just looks better if nothing else. CLEAR ENUNCIATION: I dare say that individuals will enunciate differently regardless of which English they are speaking. *Perhaps a reflection on education, social status, and other cultural influences. CORRECT USE of PREPOSITIONS: I am not so clear on as to what you mean on this one. IF you mean, for example, AT vs. ON the weekend, well, simple two differnt ways to say the same thing. Neither being wrong or better. GRAMMAR: Yes, there are some differences in grammar but, and I'll go out on a limb here, area better considered tendencies instead of clear-cut differences. For ex: Speakers of American English tend to use the present perfect tense (have/has + past participle) far less than speakers of British English.

On the other hand, some Americans seem to like reinventing the language as they go." This is an absurd and misguided statement.

The "dumbing down" is not a reflection of the language but a reflection of your personal view.

The reasons for the variations lie in history, time, and social change to name but a few. (without going into details).

Different doesn’t mean wrong. Statements like "British English is better than American English" or “American English is inferior to British English” only represent the speaker’s opinion. The truth is that NO language or regional variety of language, for that matter, is inherently better or worse than another. They are just different.

I maintain that the two Englishes that are most widely used in ESL are BE and AE and have been treated as the norm. These are, of course, two of the many variations of English as those listed by David. Further, each variation is unique to the country that shaped it. Thus, it shouldn't be implied that any are wrong, rather, they should be viewed as only different in some cases such as certain grammar points, spellings, pronounciations, and the like.

I agree David. Why do so many harp on such erroneous ideas? Of course, this will continue to be debated and argued to no end.

So, is AE lazy English? NO. But, for sure, there are those that speak this variation that are lazy when using it.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I started this thread in 2003, and I have to admit I now feel a little silly about it.
Thanks to the input in this thread (and others) I realise my stupidity at having been so outspoken.

I still think it is a little unfortunate that English used around the world is not more standardised, but to hope for such standardisation would be unrealistic. Further, the differences although sometimes frustrating and confusing (especially for students), do add colour and intreague.

Thanks again for all the input

Mike