English vs American the language barrier
So I just finished reading the book Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code. I found two problems proving it’s obvious the writer is British and the proof readers weren’t paying attention to the American way of things…
#1 He has the daughter of a Chicago Mob boss say “we must leave straightaway.” No American, much less Midwesterner, would use the term “straightaway” unless they’ve spent a considerable amount of time in England or had just finished watching several hours of BBC America and are easily influenced by what they hear. She did seem like a woman of class so she wouldn’t have said the classic Chicagoan phrase of “We gotta go now” she’d most likely have said, “we leave immediately” or “right away” or “as soon as possible.”
#2 He mentions a security feature that is illegal by “Chicago state law”. Yeah… Chicago is a CITY… so if it was illegal in the city of Chicago then that’d be “by Chicago municipal law” or “the laws of the City of Chicago.” Otherwise that’d make it illegal by “Illinois State Law.”
Aside from those problems, I very much enjoyed the book. I like all of the Artemis Fowl books. But please, let this be a lesson to all British authors who throw American characters into their books. LISTEN to how Americans speak. They wont use the terms straightaway, telly, mobile, boot, or lorry. They wont tell someone to “ring me up” and they wont blather on about daleks, unless they’re a total sci-fi geek like me. I present fine examples of American speech for you research needs: Trading Spaces, Survivor, Fear Factor, Charmed, Gilmore Girls, ER, Lost and Stargate SG1. The first 3 on the list will give better examples than the rest, since they are reality shows, those folks aren’t trained on how to speak, they just talk their normal talk. But for certain, those folks will show you how Americans use the English language (and how poorly we use it too).
