22^nd March 2025 Ai Siok & Beena

Hello, everyone! I want to post a piece of colouring work by Ai Siok titled ‘Cozy Vibes.’ This sparked my curiosity and led me to a new learning about language differences that I’m eager to share with you.

I love that word cosy or is it cozy? If you are British leaning, you will use cosy; if you are leaning towards American English, you will spell it as cozy.

Strangely, the same language has words spelt and pronounced differently across the Atlantic Ocean. It goes back to the history of why the Americans changed it. It began with Noah Webster, who established Webster’s Dictionary in 1828. He wanted to simplify the words and make them sound practical while at the same time having cultural independence from a country ruled by royalty. Hence words with ‘s’ were replaced with ‘z’, like cosy was spelt as cozy.

Thank you, Ai Siok, for sparking this curiosity in me. Your work has led me to reflect on my own language-learning journey, where I’ve found myself navigating between British and American English. I’m grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow.