bramsterdam Bilingual Hexaglot Senior Member NetherlandsRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5428 days ago 106 posts - 113 votes Speaks: Dutch, French*, English*, German, Spanish, Russian
| Message 25 of 100 11 September 2010 at 3:55am | IP Logged |
I´m happy with French and English as native tongues. My French is just a tad bit better than my English. If I could change it though I would. Make it so my native language is Dutch and French instead of French and English. Or, Russian and Dutch, that´d be quite something. If just one option then Dutch for sure. 2 options then Dutch and French or Dutch and Russian.
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DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5381 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish
| Message 26 of 100 11 September 2010 at 4:25am | IP Logged |
I wouldn't change my native English, but I would have loved to have been raised bilingual. I'm not sure what language though....Spanish would be the most useful, Finnish and Swedish were the languages of my maternal grandparents so I feel some affinity. And I would love to have learned a language with highly complex grammar much different than English. (Finnish would probably fit the bill there). Something really unique and different maybe, like Georgian or Basque.
I know my family geneaology extremely well thanks to my sister's research, so I actually know that virtually all of my paternal ancestors came from Southern Engand to Virginia and ultimately North Carolina in the 1600's and 1700's. My mother's father was a Swedish speaking Finn, and her mother's family is a bit of a mystery. Most likely English though, from what we know. So I know that I'm pretty much 1/4 Swedish/Finnish and 3/4 English.
I do feel an affinity for English, since I know my ancestors were speaking English all along. I am American, but I love England and my goal is to visit there someday, along with my great grandfather's home town in Finland.
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The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5650 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean
| Message 27 of 100 11 September 2010 at 5:30am | IP Logged |
I wouldn't necessarily give up English, but I wish I was raised bilingual with Korean, as I should have been. To me, a Korean having to learn Korean is ridiculous...
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ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 28 of 100 11 September 2010 at 9:56am | IP Logged |
I wouldn't change my native Dutch for anything but I would have loved to have been raised bilingual, with French as my secondary native language, or even trilingual with English as well. The ideal upbringing for me would be to have been raised in the UK with a Dutch father and a French mother, spending a lot of time in France and the Netherlands as well and maybe Italy and Greece to put a dent into those languages as well. ;-)
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CommanderK Bilingual Triglot Newbie Israel melearninglanguages. Joined 5190 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, Russian*, English Studies: German
| Message 29 of 100 11 September 2010 at 10:02am | IP Logged |
I will never change my native language! :)
F***ing Hebrew patriot :P
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jtdotto Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5230 days ago 73 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German
| Message 30 of 100 11 September 2010 at 1:29pm | IP Logged |
tritone wrote:
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. |
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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.
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True, conservatives do not often espouse a sincere pride in the language, but rather use 'English as the Official
Language' movement as political oppression of immigrants. Keep in mind what Levi said though. The biggest
motivating factor is fear of Spanish, not love of English.
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luhmann Senior Member Brazil Joined 5334 days ago 156 posts - 271 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: Mandarin, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic (classical)
| Message 31 of 100 11 September 2010 at 3:54pm | IP Logged |
Being a native speaker of a Romance Language pays off. I was able to understand Spanish since always, and I have learned to speak it decently from exposition alone. French required some effort, but after after breaking down the initial barrier, I suddenly could understand nearly everything. And then Italian, it seemed very transparent after I was already competent in three Romance Languages.
So I was wondering if I should swap my Portuguese for Mandarin... it would be an unfair trade, as it would have costed me four languages not one.
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Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German
| Message 32 of 100 11 September 2010 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
luhmann wrote:
So I was wondering if I should swap my Portuguese for Mandarin... it would be an unfair trade, as it would have costed me four languages not one.
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Dude. There's something like 14 different languages closely related to Mandarin.
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