i am very angry with choonping who leapt on the americanisation of my english because i went and criticised the americanisation of julian's spelling. possibly i shouldn't have remarked on julian, but changes in speech and writing are not identical processes! i never claimed to speak perfect singaporean english or british rp to begin with, and i don't pretend to now. and of course i have by this time picked up very many american features of speech - and i don't speak consistently either. my intervocalic t's have frequently become flaps, but not always. i sometimes am rhotic, sometimes am not, though quite often i am now. my low and back vowels have all become a notch to the front and quite a bit higher. this is something i do notice, and i can't say whether i like or not like it, it is just something that has happened. i wish i could be consistent and keep my original speech, but pronunciation isn't especially resistant to environmental influence. it has affected all of us to some extent - von is almost consistently rhotic, poach has also acquired a flap. what of it? and while our englishes have changed, so that we no longer speak singapore english, when we speak singlish we still speak singlish natively. if i had gone to beida to study i quite likely would have got a beijing qiang by now. or if i went to taiwan my chinese quite likely would have acquired taiwanese features and i would have lost the fully articulated vowels of beijing pronunciation. but i would not start to write in fan ti, anymore than a hongkonger living in singapore writes in jianti. spelling is a lot more resistant to change, and much more conventional. writing is a much more personal act. a person trained all her life in one system doesn't switch all of a sudden. i don't spell american and if i did it would be just as affected as an american who started spelling british on a whim. when i speak singlish i speak singlish as i always have done. and whether i am in singapore or the states i never have spelt center or honor or organize in a paper. if the americans don't mind i don't see why choonping should. so there.