Would you change your native language (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Would you change your native language
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100 messages over 13 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 8 ... 12 13 Next >>

tzadik7
Hexaglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5795 days ago
10 posts - 11 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian
Studies: Dutch, Turkish, Mandarin, Arabic (classical)

Message 57 of 100

06 January 2011 at 7:02am | IP Logged

All I have to say is that I'm glad that I didn't have to learn English as a second
language. As easy as the grammar is compared to other languages and such, I would be
terribly afraid of acquiring the pronunciation and spelling. I'd like to be bilingual at
least...English/Choctaw, English/Navajo, English/Cherokee. I love these types of
languages.
1 person has voted this message useful

RealJames
Diglot
Newbie
Japan
realizeenglish.com/
Joined 5125 days ago
37 posts - 42 votes
Speaks: French, English*
Studies: Japanese

Message 58 of 100

06 January 2011 at 7:45am | IP Logged

tzadik7 wrote:

For almost the same reasons I have the same opinion.
To me the sheer amount of vocabulary and spelling confusion of English makes me so glad I don't have to learn it as a second language!
1 person has voted this message useful

SeanOB
Newbie
Ireland
Joined 5401 days ago
4 posts - 9 votes
Speaks: English*

Message 59 of 100

06 January 2011 at 1:26pm | IP Logged

Yes, I'd change English for my father's native language, Ulster Gaelic. It was also the native language of my mother's family up until a few generations ago.
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CheeseInsider
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5123 days ago
193 posts - 238 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin*
Studies: French, German

Message 60 of 100

07 January 2011 at 8:20am | IP Logged

With English + Mandarin as mother tongues I can't really complain. I do however wish that I was immersed in Mandarin more, because having only 1 person to speak Mandarin with while growing up = having weaknesses that a monolingual Mandarin speaker would not have.
1 person has voted this message useful

kmart
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 6125 days ago
194 posts - 400 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian

Message 61 of 100

08 January 2011 at 11:24pm | IP Logged

aabram wrote:

I Agree with Ari and jtdotto about this "having English as native language is like winning a lottery" thing. To me it's exactly the opposite. Since English is so ubiquitous, you would have ended up learning it anyway,

To me, the blessing of having English as a native language is being able to appreciate English-language writers completely. I may be wrong, and perhaps those who learn another language well enough come to the same appreciation of literature in their target language as native speakers do, but I feel that I will never be able to appreciate Dante the way an Italian does. Mind you, Dante sounds exquisite to me, but even a shopping list sounds like poetry in Italian.
But, as a native English speaker, I have the leg-up on Shakespeare, and being the devoted Shax-fan that I am, I couldn't give that up, not even to have the sexiest language in the world at my command (although if you guaranteed me the style, grace and beauty of Italian women as well as the language, I'd probably jump at the offer).
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Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5101 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

Message 62 of 100

08 January 2011 at 11:27pm | IP Logged

I would never wich to change my native language. Not only do I love English, but it has the advantage of being a widely spoken language.

I would love to grown up bilingual though.
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christian
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5251 days ago
111 posts - 135 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Japanese, German

Message 63 of 100

09 January 2011 at 12:00am | IP Logged

jtdotto wrote:

Levi wrote:

seive wrote:

I wouldn't change my mother-tongue or nationality for anything, I'm immensely
proud of my country and language. Even if we we hadn't spread it all over the world, and it was only spoken here
in England, I still wouldn't change it. I find it funny that the americans reasons for being happy with it is just
because of its the most dominate.

seive wrote:

cathrynm wrote:

Yeah, the thing about being a native English speaker, for me at least, I don't
feel like English is 'my language' the way that other people are attached to their native languages. It's just this
thing I speak, you know, whatever. Like Japanese people are always saying "We say blah blah blah" whereas I
would never say "we English speakers say blah blah blah" -- I don't think there is a 'we' for English speakers. It's
a global culture -- but that means it's not an identity so much.

I think this thread and this post in particular shows the huge difference in the way an Englishman
perceives English and someone who isn't English. I absolutely disagree with everything in that quote and I think
most, if not all, Englishmen would as well.

You have to realize the different nature of American national pride compared to the pride of other (older)
countries. In England, people are proud of being part of a millennium-long history, people are proud of the land
where their ancestors have lived since time immemorial, and people are proud of the language that emerged
from those people living on that land.

But America is a relatively recent country, and our sense of national pride is based more on the principles our
country stands for than cultural traditions. Our language is English only because some Brits displaced the native
local languages a couple centuries ago. Most of us don't even have any English heritage (except here in the
Northeast—I'm half English). More of our ancestors spoke German and West African languages than the language
of our former colonial overlords. English in America is a historical accident, and a pragmatic solution to
communication for a country of immigrants from all over the world, but nothing to be particularly proud of,
especially since we share the language with a great many other countries.

The only people in this country who proclaim any kind of Anglophone pride, frankly, seem to be motivated more
by fear/hatred of Spanish than by a fondness for English.

Levi could not have said it any clearer. I always admire and sometimes envy the fact that the English have a
strong sense of culture and identity, and obviously a strong pride in their native tongue. But in the United States,
it is simply not that way.

Because we are a people descended from immigrants, we don't have a sense of "we" when describing our evolved
values and cultural characteristics, let alone our language, because none of the above stated is very evolved.
Our country is still in its adolescence.

As Levi said, those that seem to have a flagrant pride in English are usually conservative, somewhat bigoted white
people, who may or may not know the details of their ancestry.

I somewhat agree, but I think you are misunderstanding an aspect of American culture. I think we as Americans take pride in our
values like we said. We aren't that young. Sure the official establishment of independence may have been 1776, but our
ancestors were here long before that. The colonization of America and the life. We learn in school the history of the US since
1492, and sometime even more about the Native Americans. We enjoy our culture of music and movies, which are only possible because
we speak English. I don't think you give us enough credit for our love of America and her morphed language and its culture in
books, movies, music, etc.
1 person has voted this message useful

wenevy
Bilingual Pentaglot
Newbie
China
Joined 5078 days ago
28 posts - 36 votes
Speaks: Spanish, Mandarin*, Cantonese*, Catalan, English^C1
Studies: French, Italian

Message 64 of 100

09 January 2011 at 12:28pm | IP Logged

Well, it´s a interesting question.
My native language is chinese.
Sometime i could like to be able to speak English as my native language.
Because it´s so important
But, I love my language. It´s a especial language.It´s flexible and rich.
And it´s difficult(it´s no so difficult if you only want to speak and understand it.)
So, my conclusion is not.
I would not change my native language.

Edited by wenevy on 09 January 2011 at 12:28pm

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