should I learn Canadian English

<<So personally, I'd want to spell "gallopping", "hiccupping", "vowellise" etc. "Opening" is so common that I don't think about its spelling, and in words like "towering" the E is so modified by the R after it that to my mind the long/short vowel rule no longer applies as it is neither the short E of "get" or the long E of "seed".>>

Yeah if English followed that open/closed spelling rule like Afrikaans and Dutch do, those forms would make sense but even British spelling doesn't accept "gallopping" "hiccupping" "gossipping" etc. while it does accept anomalies such as "worshipping" or "benefitted." What American spelling has done is regularize the rule for exceptions such as "worshipping" to become "worshiping" and "benefited" like other words ("gossiping" "edited" etc.).

> Yeah if English followed that open/closed spelling rule like Afrikaans and Dutch do, those forms would make sense but even British spelling doesn't accept "gallopping" "hiccupping" "gossipping" etc. while it does accept anomalies such as "worshipping" or "benefitted." What American spelling has done is regularize the rule for exceptions such as "worshipping" to become "worshiping" and "benefited" like other words ("gossiping" "edited" etc.).

I'd think of "worshipping" and "benefitted" as regular and "galloping" and "opening" as irregular. I think the problem is that English orthography has conflicting rules.

<<I'd think of "worshipping" and "benefitted" as regular and "galloping" and "opening" as irregular. I think the problem is that English orthography has conflicting rules.>>

True. But if you look at the majority of English words with such inflections, the consonant is not doubled upon receiving grammatical inflections unless the stress is upon the syllable in question. As English treats it it mostly doesn't have to do with an open/closed syllable rule.

>> I think the main differences to sum them up, would be like this: americans to me, ( even the ones who live in the northern sates) have a "flater speech sound to me". its kind of like there words are drawn out alot more than canadians. <<

No, the main difference between the Northern dialect and the Canadian dialect, is that the Northern accent has the Northern Cities vowel shift, whereas the Canadian accent does not.

>> we canadians definately pronounce our "ou" words differentley than americans. <<

Some speakers of the Northern dialect do have Canadian raising, and many speakers from Canada lack it.

I have noticed a certain clipped quality to Canadian vowels. We Do drawl more than they do, I think.