As an English English teacher teaching in an American school this is a question I feel I am well placed to answer I am afraid as I have to face the differences in our supposedly similar language on a daily basis!
I guess you highlight the first difference in terms of actual word usage. American English has many different words compared to British English, which we do not use and have no idea what they refer to (except if we have encountered them through films etc) such as bleachers, sidewalk, garbage, trashcan, recess, math to name just a few. We (Brits) say stands, pavement, rubbish, rubbish bin, break, and maths. The biggest and most amusing difference is that Americans say "pants" which to us refers to a style of underwear instead of the "trousers" that we wear.
In terms of spelling, Americans really don't like the "u" that we have in words such as colour, valour and honour. Also, you guys like to put a "z" in lots of words whereas we use a "s", such as "cvilisation", "romanticise" and "globalisation".
And all this is even before we get on to phonetics and how we pronounce the words we speak! What fun! Needless to say, us Brits think we speak the superior form of English, I am afraid, and smugly mock the way that Americans (mis)pronounce words, but in my opinion this is rather arrogant of us and also shortsighted as it ignores the way language changes and evolves. I do insist on speaking and spelling British English though!
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