Accents in Am. English

[A. Vine]

<agitated state>

OK, There's an Irish guy on one of the lists who has got my dander up.  He is
insisting that it is wrong to leave off the accents on words in Am. English.  I
and another fellow (US folk) say baloney, in Am. English most people don't learn
accents, nor do they write them.  I think I've brought this to this list before,
but in case the idiot wants some sort of authoritative backup, I ask:

Would any of you mark a word wrong which lacks the accents that it had in its
originating language, e.g. resume, cafe, fiance?

Would you think that the word is missing its accents and is therefore harder to
understand?

If you saw the word "resumé" (the last letter is 'e' with an acute accent) would
you think, hey, it's missing the other accent?

Do any of you care?  Is it anyone's pet peeve?

Are any of you in touch with K-12 folks?  If so, could you ask them if they
teach accent writing?

To this day I don't feel comfortable writing a cedilla.

</agitated state>

Many thanks for your answers.
Andrea
--
Andrea Vine, avine at eng.sun.com, iPlanet i18n architect
"Stew my foot and call me Brenda"
--From "Angry Child" by Aardman Animation