Do You Speak American? The impact of American English, rich with regional variety, is felt in every field: popular culture, arts and literature, science and technology, medicine and politics. It's the language of international industry, Wall Street, the Pentagon, the space shuttle and, of course, the Internet. Journalist and author Robert MacNeil zigzags cross-country to explore how Americans use the language today, how it's developing and how people feel about it. In this special you'll hear Americans in all their glory, talking their talk - from presidents to snowboarders, from society matrons to rap artists, from radio disc jockeys to teenagers at the mall. When's it on? Visit the Site Download Questions (PDF file - Adobe Reader required) How would you evaluate the state of American English today? Has the environment at a particular time in your life made you feel as if you should change the way you speak? Why? How do you think regional accents have impacted American English? Do you think they will disappear as time goes by? How much does the growing number of Spanish speakers in the United States affect American English? Do you think English should be declared the "official" language of the United States? Why or why not? Should the United States have a "second" language? Why or why not? The word "like" has crept its way into the vocabulary of many Americans - sometimes as an adjective, sometimes as a verb, sometimes as a superfluous interjection. What is your opinion of words like this taking prominent hold in our spoken language? What do you think about the interjection of slang into the English language in general? What do you think about the way kids talk today vs. the way their grandparents did a generation or two ago? Or they way the founding fathers of our country did? What has changed? Some say that our culture's need to make our speech politically correct has devalued language. What do you think?
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