British schoolchildren are suddenly sounding like they've stepped off a school bus in Ohio. Teachers across the UK say they're hearing more students use American vocabulary in the classroom, according to a survey by Teacher Tapp for the Times of London. In other words, kids there are saying "garbage" instead of "rubbish" and "candy" instead of "sweets." The shift is most pronounced among younger pupils, with 65% of primary school teachers reporting that their students say "candy," compared with only about a quarter of secondary teachers. Educators and parents largely chalk it up to children's media diets: endless YouTube hours, American-dominated streaming platforms, and influencers like MrBeast and Cocomelon shaping how kids speak before traditional accents and habits settle in.
Parents describe catching their kids using American expressions or even adopting a US accent mid-sentence. Other Americanisms including "apartment" for "flat," "closet for cupboard," and "diaper" for "nappy." The trend has sparked mild concern among some parents and commentators—it's a mix of cultural anxiety and nostalgia for BBC-sandpapered Received Pronunciation. But linguists say this isn't a crisis so much as the natural evolution of language in a world where Peppa Pig now shares screen time with YouTuber energy challenges and fast-cut TikTok shorts. Kids mimic what they hear, and right now what they hear most isn't strictly British.
Professor Lynne Murphy of the University of Sussex told the Times that borrowing across English dialects is hardly new, and it's rarely permanent in children. Childhood speech quirks tend to fade, and English has always been a linguistic sponge, absorbing new words and phrases wherever speakers find them. Besides, notes the Guardian, the exchange appears to go both ways, with British words and phrases such as "gobsmacked" and "knickers in a twist" gaining traction in America.
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