Should I learn American or British English?

[samuraivader]

I've decided just to learn both of them, it's not that complicated to learn the differences.

Thank you all for all your answers. They've helped me a lot.

[Decidida]

I have a friend, a journalist, whose children speak multiple languages. I don't think these children have any language that is truly their native or first or primary language, but if they do, English is not it. Evenso, my friend could hear their English accent changing from British to American after they started watching a lot of American videos and audiobooks and she did not like that. She began to limit their American accent audio opportunities, and consciously introduced more British audio. She taught them American spelling though, as many of her writing jobs required American spelling and she expected the children to require American spelling in the future.

At my college, we had a lot of international students. Some stayed in other English speaking countries before coming to the USA. Some spoke multiple languages other than English. Growing up in a country with a language other than the native language spoken by their parents was common.

These students definitely spoke English with an accent that was not simply the accent of their primary/native language. Some of them definitley had been highly influenced by English accents other than American that were recognizable as an English accent.

I think most American do not even know what they are hearing and do not care. I think others are surprised by any English accent that is not American, but that is a wider cultural issue that I am not going to get into, and extends far past language learning.

I think a British accent could be adventageous. You never know what is coming next. Never. NEVER. You can waste a lot of your life doing something that you don't want to, and have things change so much along the way that there is no reward for your sacrifice. On the other hand, when I have done what I WANTED to, that has often benefitted me in ways that I never would have expected. Trust your gut. And doing what you want means instant rewads, and sometimes instant reward is all we get. LIving for tomoprrow often benefits the people telling you to do it, more than it benefits you.

My vote is that you study a British accent.

As for spelling, it is not uncommon for some Americans to have English spelling that varies back and forth from American to British. Yes, it can lose you points on a test, but in real life, some Americans are a spelling mess. Especially people that read a lot of classic novels as children.