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: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 12 13 Next >>

seive
Newbie
England
Joined 5247 days ago
3 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

Message 17 of 100

10 September 2010 at 8:16pm | IP Logged

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.

Edited by seive on 10 September 2010 at 8:17pm
3 persons have voted this message useful

Levi
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5568 days ago
2268 posts - 3328 votes

Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian

Message 18 of 100

10 September 2010 at 9:49pm | IP Logged

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:

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.

Edited by Levi on 10 September 2010 at 10:03pm
9 persons have voted this message useful

Arekkusu
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
Joined 5382 days ago
3971 posts - 7747 votes

Speaks: English, French*, German^C1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian

Message 19 of 100

10 September 2010 at 10:00pm | IP Logged

I'd like to have had parents and grand-parents that spoke different languages from the main language spoken wherever I'd be living.
1 person has voted this message useful

Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6704 days ago
9078 posts - 16473 votes

Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan
Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian
Personal Language Map

Message 20 of 100

10 September 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged

I'm happy with my native Danish, because it is big enough to have books and magazines and TV stations galore, but also so small that I had to learn other languages at an early age
1 person has voted this message useful

Marc94
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5247 days ago
32 posts - 50 votes
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian

Message 21 of 100

11 September 2010 at 1:06am | IP Logged

I personally would change my native language to German.
1 person has voted this message useful

jtdotto
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 5230 days ago
73 posts - 172 votes

Speaks: English*, Korean
Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German

Message 22 of 100

11 September 2010 at 1:24am | IP Logged

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.
1 person has voted this message useful

Juаn
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5346 days ago
727 posts - 1830 votes

Speaks: Spanish*

Message 23 of 100

11 September 2010 at 2:28am | IP Logged

I used to disregard my native language, but after some reflection and the experience afforded by having studied several other languages, I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Not that other languages are not at least as wonderful, but I've come to appreciate both the precision and expressive gamut of Spanish as well as what it means for my dearest memories and emotional home.
1 person has voted this message useful

tritone
Senior Member
United States
reflectionsinpo
Joined 6121 days ago
246 posts - 385 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French

Message 24 of 100

11 September 2010 at 3:25am | IP Logged

Levi wrote:

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.

I have never heard anyone, not even super-conservative people, proclaim any sort of pride in the English Language - in the same manner that the French for example, pride themselves in their language. This phenomenom just doesn't exist. Even the word "anglophone" to collectively label all English speakers is seldom used.

English is not even actively promoted by any English speaking body (like the francophonie promotes french), it just kind of spreads on its own. Nobody says "English is so beautiful, learn English!". We don't care.

1 person has voted this message useful

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