Are Americans unique in their condemnatory attitudes?

As an American born and bred, I wonder at our inability to promote the standard language without at the same time besmearing and denigrating anything not standard.

Is it the same in other countries? Are people who control the standard in public situations condemned for using their home dialect at home or among friends who speak it? Do school children in other countries find themselves chided for using a homey, dialectal variant in class or on the playground? Or do teachers there simply remind them of the standard way of saying the same thing?

I hope someone responds to this and gives us personal observations from other countries. Remember, I’m not asking for tales of how someone used the home dialect inappropriately, in a situation where the standard was required, but rather where the home dialect is denigrated and considered stupid, grating, illogical, and all the other pejorative terms used on listservs of American fl teachers.

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