The English Corner

Our  local newspaper in Heidelberg, Germany, the “Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung,” features a column called “English Corner” in its Saturday supplement. It contains articles written in English, presumably to let German readers practice their English reading skills. I read the column each week for several weeks and learned that the articles were written by a Canadian, a British, and an Australian author in succession. All three write British English. So, I wrote to the editor of the supplement and asked if it wouldn't be of interest to his readers to read an article written in American English since there is a difference in the spelling of certain words, certain words can be differently interpreted, and different idioms and expressions are used. The reply was that he was quite satisfied with his three authors, but that he would be willing to consider a guest article and that I should send him a sample of my writing. I wrote several articles in a simple conversational tone that I thought might be somewhat educational and interesting to the readers. The articles appear below. So far, two of my articles have been published: The Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and USA Presidential Elections, which I wrote during the US primary elections this spring. I recently submitted the article about great white sharks around Cape Cod, but have not heard yet if it will reach print.