Musings on turning American
Two groups are forming on my contact list, as I settle into a social life here in California: My old prominently-Canadian comrades, and my new American friends. Today, I find myself having to think twice every time I write “colour” or “favourite”, cut back, and rewrite it without our endearing u depending on the recipient.
All of this is expected, but what occured to me is that I’ve been writing “color” since I first cracked open a terminal. In fact, I just wrote grep --color=auto a moment ago and didn’t skip a beat.
So, when it comes to my brain, the default spelling in English language: colour; default spelling in programming language: color. What gives? Feels like the two are independent parts of the brain. Anyone have similar experiences?
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For me when I code words just lose all meaning (http://www.earobinson.org/2009/03/14/form-forum/), Code to me is english based but not really english (if that makes any sense at all)
For me when I code words just lose all meaning (http://www.earobinson.org/2009/03/14/form-forum/), Code to me is english based but not really english (if that makes any sense at all)
(third time is the charm on your captcha)
I swap back and forth all the time, and mix them around. Never seems to be an issue in coding though… but it happens.
meh – just use colour. I’m American and I don’t think twice seeing it. We’ve all been immersed in enough British Literature to be used to it by now – or if not then so uneducated it doesn’t matter. :P
After three years in Ireland I got used to ‘colour’ and now I have to correct myself sometimes when writing for US readers. I probably don’t even thing about color when coding because I kept spelling it that way over there – so yeah, similar experience.
andrey…do you like me enough to link with me on linkedin? =p
I don’t even live anywhere else, yet I still wonder if the American reader will recognize that the u is intentional. I wish there was a way to make sure they realize that colour is no a mistake.
After years of working on both sides of the border I am not sure what to tell you. I do notice that regardless of how hard I try … the ‘u’ just keeps showing up. Maybe I like it when clients down south make a big deal about it. Maybe I do it on purpose … unknowingly.
Keep the ‘u’ … let it be a part of Canada that you take with you.