Going forward!

Oops, this is Pedants' Corner; so for consistency should have said "so he accepts the compliment!"

A news report stated yesterday that apostrophes are being removed from street signs - presumably to be bought as a job lot by the nations's' greengrocer's' s

Then there is a job waiting for an active pedant with a thick, indelible felt-tipped pen!

I used to live close to a road called RALPH'S WIFE'S LANE but written without benefit off apostrophes. The locals always ensured it was correctly apostrophised however even going to the bother of cutting out and using black masking tape

We saw a sign in Australia which informed us:
CROCODILES DO NOT SWIM HERE

SiL assumed it was safe in that particular area.

Point taken M74!!

Like the ones that say SLOW CHILDREN CROSSING. Tell them to get a move on!

They have "Slow Men Workin" near us.

Oops! What ever happened to that final "G" "SLOW MEN WORKING"!

That sign's probably meant to be without punctuation, Nellie!

Yes, apologies a missing !

To be fair, it was set out thus:

CROCODILES
DO NOT
SWIM HERE

and we never know if SIL is ditsy or constantly winding up BIL. The former, we think.

But this was on a small beach in a popular tourist resort. The locals would just say "You stupid or what? Eh?"

I've just read something that explains the use of "I'm good" in place of I'm fine. The sentence, written by an American, was this: "You groomed him good too". She was speaking of an animal that looked good in a photograph; it had been groomed to look good. So the American usage is explained by the fact that they use "good" where we would use "well" or "fine".

Interestingly, good has a Germanic origin and fine has a Latin origin. That's interesting because the swear words that are regarded as the most "offensive" tend to be the ones with a Germanic origin. Their Latin-derived equivalents are often not even regarded as swear words. e.g. fuck/have sexual intercourse with.

And in German 'gut' means well, as well as good. But UK English retains the distinction between adjective and adverb, at least for now.

But Chambers Dictionary accepts the US usage as "informal" or "dialect". Nothing wrong with informal everyday greetings nor with dialect.

It wouldn't surprise me if the same people who object to the US use of good in place of fine or well would also support the retention of British dialect words because they enrich the language.

People who speak English in the UK respond to "how are you?" with "I'm good, thanks", therefore it is UK Englsih now too regardless of what the language police say.

UK English is what people speak. Always has been and always will be.

Written English is more formal than spoken English but both are proper English.

When I was doing a TEFL course another student wanted to know what was the "correct" reply (so they could teach it) to a request such as "Can I borrow your ruler?" Our instructor answered his query by asking me the question (I was with a different group and didn't know about the discussion the student and instructor were having). My answer was this: "Yeah. Sure" and I handed him my ruler. I'm a native English speaker. What I said is 'normal', 'proper' English whether it's what someone else would say or not.

Same applies to "I'm good." No, it doesn't mean "I'm virtuous" in the context we'vebeen discussing. The context makes obvious what it means. Context matters.

Americans are scared of adverbs...

Evidence please, feetle.

DD2 is teaching English to adults, now teaching advanced course which is colloquial English. Younger people tend to say I'm good rather than well or fine I think.
Like "stonking" - where did that come from - and disappear to?

MIL used to get annoyed when people answered "I'm fine". She said you should always answer with an honest explanation of the state of your health! And she did.

I hope the TEFL course student was taught the difference between "may" and "can"!

And of course context matters and I know what people mean when they say "I'm good." And I don't object to US usage in a US context. That doesn't stop it jarring when I hear it in a UK context.

Perhaps because they all travel so much these days and pick up idioms from all nationalities.

I must be in the minority here:
I find "may I ... ?" so old fashioned/formal that I couldn't bring myself to use it!

The only context I can think of where it still sounds natural to me is when it stands alone ( "May I?"), as an abbreviated form of things such as "Is it alright if I help myself?"

grumppa, people say Can I borrow...? in my world usually, not may I borrow? TEFL is to teach people whose first language isn't English how to communicate effectively. Effective communicaton doesn't always need to be pedantically grammatically correct. Using expressions native speakers use is just fine whether grammatical or not.

It'll just have to jar then, grumppa. It can't be easy to have to live with so much jarring. Perhaps you could get treatment – like learning how to chill a bit about unimportant matters .

(spoken kindly with a twinkle in my eye)

Listen carefully next time you hear someone asked "How are you?" (or a similar question).

The spontaneous reply is nearly always "Yes!"
(Admittedly, often followed up next with "I'm good", as already discussed)

"Yes" still seems odd to me in that context.

Before you say it, I know I should get a life!

I wonder if people on TEFL courses are taught to intersperse there conversation copiously with 'like'.