Am I the only one who hates the US flag being used for 'English' language?

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VSZeke@reddit

They should have both: \[Union Jack\] - English \[American Flag\] - English (Simplified)

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GlennPegden@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/45rh7i3nux1f1.png?width=526&format=png&auto=webp&s=308ee292dd5c0466f7f7b67ace40719c9626de94

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rat_fucker42069@reddit

Taiwan too. Steam knows what’s up

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shaolinoli@reddit

That’s an established convention. Simplified Chinese are the characters used by most mandarin speakers in mainland china. Taiwan and Hong Kong use the more complicated, traditional characters. These are the official terms for them and the joke that the image is playing on.

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finH1@reddit

Common steam W

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ColdFix@reddit

I came here to suggest exactly what's in your image... "English (simplified)", perfect!

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Nimble_Natu177@reddit

Based and Taiwan

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SilyLavage@reddit

Flags being used to represent languages is a bit wonky in general. Duolingo, for example, uses the Scottish flag to represent Gaelic. This makes sense on the surface, but ignores that Scotland has another native language, Scots, and that English is the majority language. Why does Gaelic get to claim the national flag over the other two? I don't have a simple solution for representing languages in icon form, but using national flags definitely has its flaws.

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Lonehorns@reddit

The heartbreaking reality is that American English is more widely spoken than British English, certainly when it comes to native English-speaking countries. If you combine the populations of the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, that’s just shy of 140 million. The US, on the other hand, has a population of 330 million. This is the same reason why you tend to see the Brazilian flag used to represent the Portuguese language instead of Portugal’s, that being a former colony outgrowing its previous coloniser in terms of population and overall global influence.

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Legend_of_the_Arctic@reddit

The US has the largest population of native English speakers in the world. There are about 300 million here, compared to 60 million in the world. I’m not one of those super-nationalistic Americans who thinks that we’re special or better than anyone else. But it isn’t an unreasonable choice to use the US flag to represent English.

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_FreddieLovesDelilah@reddit

As a Welsh person I kinda find ‘British English’ off too. Like, no it’s English English, you guys just came over here and forced us to speak it haha.

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grafeisen203@reddit

It's fun looking at how English sounded the further back you go. Pre-Norman old English sounded very similar to how modern Welsh sounds. Modern English has more in common with Germanic and Romance languages than it's roots.

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daveirl@reddit

Small price to pay for all the colonisation.

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ShowmasterQMTHH@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/hoo8ia5vvx1f1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2dade525b6b57611d3ffd0a140c77cf49baf4bc Atms here in Ireland in some cases....

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heilhortler420@reddit

Irish language advocates on Suicide Watch

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BritishBlitz87@reddit

Rip Gaelic traditions

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daddy-dj@reddit

Lol, and English isn't even the first option 🤣

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r_keel_esq@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/seecel1qyx1f1.jpeg?width=526&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3109ca43d3ad858a07a3919e486c7ae2108d2494 Just sayin'...

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0ttoChriek@reddit

Americans speak English, and there is more of them than there are British people. Just from a numbers point of view, it makes sense to assume an English speaker is American rather than British. But most language choices I've seen differentiate between US and UK English anyway.

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AnyBug1039@reddit

Exactly, it doesn't really bother me. Things change. Why would it make sense for Americans to select the union jack on a website for the language that they speak (from their perspective). I think the world gas bigger issues to worry about. If its a British website however then it might seem a bit wrong. Without the US, English might not have become the de facto global language which makes my life so much easier anyhow. Gotta take the rough with the smooth

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Nimble_Natu177@reddit

>Without the US, English might not have become the de facto global language Ever heard of this small thing called the British Empire?

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marsman@reddit

>Just from a numbers point of view, it makes sense to assume an English speaker is American rather than British. I mean it does to a degree, but there are far more non-American English speakers than American ones, so to a certain extent it makes more sense to assume an English speaker is neither British or American (as likely to be Indian at that point). Americans basically make up one in about six english speakers after all. Not that that helps with the whole flag thing.

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gloomfilter@reddit

I don't recall ever seeing this to be honest. Mostly the flags are used to denote locale on websites or software and en-gb would be different from en-us. I'm pretty adverse to flag waving anyway - so would prefer a text description...Oddly, I'm blocked from one sub (r/HearingAids) because I objected to having a flag next to my name..

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cozyHousecatWasTaken@reddit

🇬🇧English (traditional) 🇺🇸English (simplified) 🇨🇦English (apologetic) 🇦🇺English (drunk) 🇳🇿English (hobbit) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿English (aggressive) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿?

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AberNurse@reddit

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Welsh.

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gapgod2001@reddit

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English

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Poser-Dispozer@reddit

I could care less about it...

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kiki184@reddit

Ohh look how the turntables

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teezy-za@reddit

Was that on accident?

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AnyBug1039@reddit

Y'all talking American?

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CedrikNobs@reddit

Please be more pacific with your question

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Due-Resort-2699@reddit

That’s bait 😂

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-qqqwwweeerrrtttyyy-@reddit

Have only seen it as an option, not an only

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LenzaRNG@reddit (OP)

Duolingo is among the worst culprits, believe it or not.

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SoggyWotsits@reddit

I agree. I find it so frustrating that a language app is so bad in that sense. I’ve been using it for quite some time to learn Spanish, but it’s mostly Mexican Spanish. All the English is American English. You’d think as they specialise in so many languages that they’d give you a few more basic options!

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BritishBlitz87@reddit

The Duolingo English accent is literally more aggressively American than most actual Americans. They could at least choose a more neutral accent

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theoht_@reddit

i don’t have any complaints if they make a distinction between american and british english, but using the US flag to represent english overall is just plain bullshittery

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Cultural-Eggplant592@reddit

I work in UI. I never use the American flag. (I avoid flags at all where possible.)

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SoggyWotsits@reddit

I’ve tried, but I can’t figure out what UI is?

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Djinjja-Ninja@reddit

User Interface

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kiki184@reddit

I am not even born in the UK, but it really pisses me off when I see that...

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Bonzothedoggie@reddit

At least the language option is English, and not "American"

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ambiguousboner@reddit

Such a small bizarre thing to be annoyed about See also: soccer instead of football

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ArsePucker@reddit

Im a Brit living in US. One of my co-workers went on a Norway cruise. When he came back he said, “ yeh really odd, all the food was labeled in different languages, but the English version had the English flag next to it not the US flag.” I asked him what language that would signify? He said English.. but still couldn’t comprehend why it didn’t have a US flag….🤦‍♂️

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UK_FinHouAcc@reddit

Put simply, no. I have far more things to worry about.

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AnyBug1039@reddit

Couldn't agree more. People get uppity about little things. Just accept it, things change. There are all kinds of actual bad things happening in the world right now, but this is not one of them.

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98753@reddit

It’s informative, the American flag means American English

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CobblerSmall1891@reddit

Yes. I spent exactly 0 seconds thinking about this my entire life until you asked here.

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Few-Structure6417@reddit

It's cause everyone else will understand that people under the USA flag speak English while Americans see a UK/Aus flag and go "Naw whhat en tarnation dis dang ol' Asian speakin' aint no way am speakin' dis' right here." -source: am American.

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Sublime99@reddit

Depends where you live. Here in Sweden, it often is the Union flag. Although ironically, I care less and less about Americanisms being used/American accents being bandied about even if I won't use them (despite this, my average day to day life is only in Swedish). The first use of language is to communicate, so as long as I can understand another's English they could use an Australian flag to indicate English for all I care.

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just_some_guy65@reddit

Apparently it is not unknown for them to refer to speaking English as "speaking American"

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Cultural-Eggplant592@reddit

"Without an accent"

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LionLucy@reddit

There are more people in America than there are here. I'm fine with it, tbh. Don't care either way.

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frindabelle@reddit

nope, really annoys me

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pointlesstips@reddit

It isn't. It is used for English(US). Most commonly used flag for English is still the Union Flag.

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Jaraathe@reddit

It is sometimes. It’s vexed me a few times. I go mental looking for UK English but alas, we have been nuked.

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ShankSpencer@reddit

And how often are they differentiated on a multi lingual website?

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MauriceDynasty@reddit

I think we should do the same as Chinese and have English - [Union Jack] English (simplied) - [US Flag]

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Nimble_Natu177@reddit

Colour being the wrong spelling in most web browsers makes me feral.

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sbaldrick33@reddit

No. It's shit.

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leninzen@reddit

Not really, because it's the choice of whatever website/company to have the text in US English rather than British English. We can debate all day about the "default" but US English is a legitimate thing which is used by millions. So it isn't weird that a US company, for an example, will have their website and services written in the language they were taught and are used to

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nevynxxx@reddit

🇬🇧English 🇺🇸English (Simplified)

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ToriaLyons@reddit

Wasn't their a kerfuffle a while ago when the Union flag was labelled as English, and the S&S for 'Simple English'? 🤣

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LenzaRNG@reddit (OP)

More of a meme than a genuine kerfuffle, I think! I certainly remember smiling at it!

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Mail-Malone@reddit

That’s probably be highlighting its American English rather than “proper” English.

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