Typed by Masanori Hikita (Matsumoto Academia)

April 14, 2006 (Friday)
Back To American English.
What On Earth Is President’s English?

You’re not open-minded;
You’re empty-minded.

再びアメリカ英語へ。

- Mad mag. -いったい大統領英語とは何者？

I am an actor. “So is everyone on the world stage,” says Shakespeare. Here inAmerica, I speak American and I feel like an American. And I tend to take risks andturn rebellions as, say, Webster, the dangerously patriotic compiler or creator, ratherof American English. He took risks and paid for it. The story of ENGLISH portrays
this:Despite its now honored place in the history of American English, the first
Webster’s sold only 2,500 copies and he was forced to mortgage his home to bringout a second edition. The rest of his life was dogged by debt and he died in New
Haven, Connecticut, in 1843 with much of his effort unrecognized and unapplauded.
(p. 259)
Wow! That was me, more than thirty years ago. I took on debating as I did onAmerican English. I worked like a demon and became a trailblazer in the field ofdebate education in Japanese language. In Japanese? In polite Japanese? Yes, ascompared with ‘vulgar’ American English. It not only “billitles” (the British hated) itsroots but ‘murdered’ them for the birth of a new nation’s English. American English;
It’s extensive, exploitative and “explosive” by birth, while Queen’s English is“implosive” - royal and bloody defensive.
Shakespeare comes back with a sweat vengeance: “Rose by any other namewould smell as sweat.” English by any other name, British or American.
“Come on, tell the truth, Shakespeare. Say, American sucks. It’s only a dialect.
Why can’t Americans speak English?” American English still frightens British English,“bullshitting” polite and risk-averse English.
Here’s the tale of two TIME’s covers, British and American, the same issue Apr.
17, 2006.
The former: Elizabeth At 80. An inside look at the working life of Britain’s Queen– and her enduring popularity.

19Typed by Masanori Hikita (Matsumoto Academia)

The latter: Special Report DROPOUT NATION 30% of America’s high school
students will leave without graduating. Here is what one town tells us
about the crisis.
Both nations are still divided by a common language.
I’m married to American English, so I can take my wife for granted. Occasionally,
however, I feel flirtatious enough to carry a torch for an old flame, Queen’s English, if
you will. Why marriage? What’s in it for me? Cohabitation works better, sort of.
The traditional Catholic Church considered marriage a necessary evil for those
women too weak to remain virgins, whereas the Protestant Church regarded it asperfectible – providing the wife remained obedient! (Life in TUDOR England, p. 12) In
the Tudor period, both premarital sex and adultery were illegal. Abortion was unlawful.
This explains why Shakespeare was so quick to marry Anne Hathaway after she got
pregnant.
A shotgun marriage. Both British and American understand the English usage. Hewas a genius. But genius comes at a price. He took risks in Tudor era like Americans
might today. He loved music, women and money as well as risks. And that’s what it
takes to be a gifted playwright or to be a great communicator in Queen’s English.
Two of the four Tudor monarchs were female and a woman’s place was in the home– dutiful wife or faithful servant. He played hard and worked hard, patronized by aqueen.
President’s English is a commoner’s English. And basically it’s a male language.
It’s a language of a new nation born of an idea (democracy), anger and “criminalintent” in the eyes of the Britons.
The movie, “Basic Instinct 2” thrilled me.
Sharon Stone was way cool, playing the role of an
American English–speaking writer, victimising(murdering) many Queen’s English-speaking malevictims. Filmed in London; English spoken soundedfamiliar to my ears. The hair-raising and sex-citing
movie is a product of American culture thatPresident’s English deserves. Real, sensual,sexual (libidinous), psychological (psychiatric), but
hardly traditional, philosophical or spiritual.
American English speech is more measured thanEnglish – emotionally hill-less, if not flat. It’s
emotion- controlled, anger-managed language for
masculine-minded commoners, male or female.
And I love it for all its worth. My cup of tea.

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