I do believe after reading through most comments and living in Germany for many years, Germans will never understand Sarcasm. It is not their fault as they do have a language that is very black and white. Maybe some who have lived in GB or US for many years can begin to understand.

http://www.paulmeier.com/OP.pdf

In some ways, indeed, AE has remained more conservative than BE - but it has also had innovations of its own, just like BE has both conservative and innovative traits compared to AE and to their common ancestor. This is true for every dialect of English and a linguistic truism. When “thou”, still much used by Shakespeare, had dropped out of use in general usage by the late 17th century (but only in southeast England - many other dialects use forms of “thou” up to the present day), presumably being perceived as old-fashioned, unsophisticated, impolite or inappropriate and too intimate to address anyone but the Christian God, this fashion was followed by most American settlers, a notable exception being the Quakers, as well. However, when at the same time changes such as the broad “A” and R-dropping appeared in the speech of the Londoners specifically, the American settlers did not generally follow suit - although the East Coast dialects, especially in New England, eventually absorbed part of those innovations. Interestingly, the broad “A” was stigmatised even in England itself until the 19th century and viewed as a characteristic of the Cockney dialect. (Bradley Akers wouldn’t believe where I have found this one ) Nevertheless, the Americans did introduce innovations of their own, eventually, also beginning in the 18th century.

Within both AE and BE, however, dialects have gone their own ways and developped their own innovations and remaining in older states in various ways not always in accordance with the majority or the typical dialects of AE or BE; therefore, in the details, the image can be very complicated.

So, if there is a “right kind of English” at all, in a historical sense, you essentially need to learn the Shakespeare accent. But I think I’ve mentioned this before …

Please show me where your definition of “dialect” comes from. It clashes with every definition I know.

Yeah, the US and their way to fumble with statistics. Need I remind you of the Gulf oil spill disaster? You guys are a huge resource waster. Update your irrigation technology, and most of all your cars, finally.

Perhaps you should stand back, see the bigger picture and stop your knee-jerk accusations of anti-Americanism when not everybody agrees with your sugarcoated view of the US of A.