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Comment by gadders | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if they would get the same result with that passage with British-English speakers.

I've never read a Dickens novel, but a lot of the context there seems obvious to me.

That's an interesting question. I was thinking that my Australian English would cope a lot better with this; conversely, I sometimes struggle to cope with American English literature on the first read-through.

I was trying to think what the US equivalent text would be. I don't think US text gets that arcane, though.

While a valid point I don't think it is expecting too much for an English major to be familiar with the literature of the country of origin of the language they're studying?

If I were studying Spanish literature I wouldn't dream of not studying Iberian Spanish literature

While a valid point I don't think it is expecting too much for an English major to be familiar with the literature of the country of origin of the language they're studying?

I guess the big question is where in their study are they? I'm assuming it's perfectly possible to get through high school in the US without ever studying any 19th century UK literature. I certainly got through school in England without studying any US literature at all.

If we're talking students a few weeks into their first term at University then it is not at all surprising that they've never read any literature from England. If on the other hand they're a few weeks from graduating, then it would be much more surprising.

Yeah valid. I was thinking last year of undergraduate to post-grad.

A fair point.

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