I wrote a scene with an Indian family living in America. I asked a young woman born in India to look it over and make sure I didn't say anything clueless. WELL. She was taught PROPER English, and just ripped up Americans for the way they use the language. She was saying we were disrespectful and lazy. That no American author was any good because they did not understand the language. That we should speak just as the Brits do---like she does.
I was kind of taken aback. I pointed out that an ocean separated us, and it's been a long time since we've shared any common history, and that our immigration mix was different than England''s, and that we also have many Native American words, and that language should serve the people, not the people language, and therefore should be particular to the region.
She would have none of it. It was stunning to watch her rip Americans apart (not their language---but them) while seeming to forget that I was American and she had just read something from one of those hopeless American writers that are incapable of writing anything.
Sheesh.
