I know this isn't the main topic of your post, but the difference between the Queen's English (King's English now?) and American English is more prominent when in its spoken form. Spelling is one thing, but when we vocalise it, it's a whole new ballgame. Especially as most of the consumption is through audio and video, it gets confusing when in the same sentence, you use the different pronunciations....
Living in Finland, older people tend to have studied the Br. Eng, but they consume in Am. The younger consume so much Am and seemingly can hardly read. It gets weird when people talk with both and it annoys me that my daughter does it too, as her mother uses some American pronunciations. I will have to beat it out of her when she is a little older.
It's hard.......the beating part. Not sure if English has changed from my days, but it just seems everything is less structured. An example which bothers me about my daughter is when she uses "Me and my friend" instead of "My friend and I".
I was always taught the correct way was "My friend and I" and keep correcting her for it. But then when I read the books she reads, they write it as "Me and my friend" and it seems like that's what her teacher says as well.....so which is the correct way??