I find many things linguistic interesting. And for what it’s worth, the rudimentary English spoken by thousands of Chinese volunteers here is … almost uniformly American-accented.

That’s not the case for all of the world’s English-as-second-language speakers. A fair number have England-accented English. Particularly in France, and in England’s former colonies — including Hong Kong, now again a part of China.

I always find it a bit odd when a non-anglophone rolls out English English. Clearly, it happens, but it sounds almost quaint. “Isn’t that cute? Almost like the BBC.”

China being the totalitarian state it is, perhaps someone at the politburo level decided their students would learn American English. It’s more common, these days. Well, outside of India, with its billion people, many of them with basic English skills that are more Great Britain that North America.

Anyway, China … one or two veddy British accents around Beijing … all the rest, American.

And not Canadian, because I haven’t yet heard anyone say “aboot” instead of “about.”