# Is English your first language?



## MobiusX (Nov 14, 2008)

If not, at what age did you learn it? I came to the US at age 6 so that's when I started learning it but even being at church every Saturday for the first years there one of my friends kept telling me he didn't understand everything I was saying, lol, so my other friend had to translate it to him.

_He understood everything I said, he was my best fried from childhood to high school and even as an adult. I NEVER been close to anyone else like that. It's amazing when I think about it. Playing street hockey on his driveway, celebrating holidays and birthdays at each others' houses, walking to school, sleep overs, we even lived in the same house at one time, then only a house away, magical times those were, now I'm an adult, LAME. _


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## trolololololololo (Aug 12, 2013)

No, Polish is.

You know, I don't believe that you can _learn_ a language like some point in time. It's a continuous process. Even native speakers learn until they die, nobody knows every word in his language. Of course, native speakers tend to have a much better command of the language than non-native speakers. But still.


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## Amphoteric (Sep 11, 2011)

No. Started learning it when I was 9.


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## Phalene (Feb 15, 2013)

No. Started learning it at 8 or so, I got hooked on English and Spanish quickly but English was always my favorite language. I was very good in class, I have a very good ear apparently so I learn really well how to pronounce correctly.


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## Perkins (Dec 14, 2010)

No. Spanish is my first. I started speaking English when I was around 4/5. As a result I'm no longer fluent in Spanish as I once was, but I know enough to hold a conversation and I know enough to know when I'm being ****ed with.


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## loneranger (Dec 29, 2012)

I started speaking english when I was around 5 and spanish is my first language.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Amphoteric said:


> No. Started learning it when I was 9.


Oh my god Pusheen <3


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## Milco (Dec 12, 2009)

Nej.

But I was 'sick' a lot when I was a kid and I would stay home watching The Children's Channel, which showed cartoons and other children's TV in English, and I think that helped me learn quite a bit and helped familiarise me with the English language.


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## CoastalSprite (Sep 8, 2011)

I only started speaking English when I was around four or five.


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## IllusionOfHappiness (Sep 6, 2007)

Persephone The Dread said:


> Oh my god Pusheen <3


I second this.

Also: yes, English is my first language.


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## tilo brown eyes (Jun 7, 2013)

I was going to say baby language, but there wasn't an option for that.....
So I put down english, which is true (since I don't remember baby language).


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## aqwsderf (Aug 16, 2013)

Learned it around 4-6. It might not be my first language but it's my dominant one right now.


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## basuraeuropea (Jul 25, 2012)

català


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## frank81 (Dec 1, 2011)

Cantonese is my first language. Started learning english at age 7. It's one of the standard courses for elementary schools in our country.


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## Zeppelin (Jan 23, 2012)

English is my first and only language that I can speak. The nearest country ( Mexico) that speaks a different language is 1,300 miles away from me so there's no really point for me to speak a language other than English.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

Svenska :yes


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## nullptr (Sep 21, 2012)

English only, im only a little ways from mexico though so spanish would be a good language to learn, though im moving from this area after HS so I see no reason to.


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## Nunuc (Jul 9, 2013)

Finska


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## NoHeart (May 5, 2012)

No it isn't but I've been interested in it for as long as I can remember and have tried learning it from before I was taught it in schools, then again English is everywhere and I'd say it's harder NOT to pick it up incidentaly.


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## diamondheart89 (Mar 21, 2011)

No, I speak 3 other languages fluently.


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## missingno (Sep 29, 2011)

English is my only language. Why would I need another language?

if I wasn't lazy I wouldn't mind learning some German


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## Farideh (Nov 13, 2011)

Nope. Spanish was my first language. I learned how to speak english in the first grade. I was growing up with my mother only speaking to me in spanish. She made my father do the same and then they realized this was going to be a problem.


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## eveningbat (Jan 21, 2013)

Amphoteric said:


> No. Started learning it when I was 9.


You really seem like a native speaker of English, you are so good at it. 

My native language is Ukrainian. But I adore English.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

Yes. Japanese is my second language. I know some Spanish and Portuguese but I wouldn't really count them.

Both of my parents only speak English. 3 of my 4 grandparents were native English speakers and 1 was native French (Quebec).


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## aquilla (Aug 18, 2011)

No, Lithuanian is my native language. I couldn't say when exactly I started learning English. Maybe when I was about 8-9 years old (started watching cartoons on tv in English)


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## RadioactivePotato (Jan 6, 2013)

My first and only language.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

French is my main language.


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## AllToAll (Jul 6, 2011)

No. I began speaking English when I was five. Spanish is my mother tongue. I also speak French.


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## AFoundLady (Feb 8, 2013)

Yes, it is my first language. I began learning it when I was like...two/three. I've learned and spoken English my whole life. My second language is Tamil. But I suck at it.  I can also speak Mandarin. Learning French and Spanish at the moment.


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## Whatev (Feb 6, 2012)

No, Portuguese was.


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## Xenos (Jun 24, 2012)

First and only. I've tried to learn others - Spanish in particular - but it just didn't take. I _think_ in English.


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## monotonous (Feb 1, 2013)

no, 24


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## Genetic Garbage (May 7, 2011)

No. Deutsch is my first language. I started learning English at the age of 8 in elementary school.


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

I used to be bilingual. Sadly, not any more.


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## eveningbat (Jan 21, 2013)

Alas Babylon said:


> I used to be bilingual. Sadly, not any more.


Why not any more?


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

eveningbat said:


> Why not any more?


_"If you don't use it, you lose it"_ essentially. Living in a monolingual English-speaking country especially meant that using the other language just became less and less common, and hence I just lost real fluency in it eventually.


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## eveningbat (Jan 21, 2013)

Alas Babylon said:


> _"If you don't use it, you lose it"_ essentially. Living in a monolingual English-speaking country especially meant that using the other language just became less and less common, and hence I just lost real fluency in it eventually.


So what other language do you speak?


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## TheFather (Sep 20, 2012)

Yep. Mercia.


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## firestar (Jun 27, 2009)

Sadly, I got asked this question once by someone who knew me in person. Except it was phrased as, "When did you start learning English?" 

It's not so fun to have someone assume that you speak English as a second language when it's the only language you know


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## louiselouisa (Jul 12, 2012)

learning english when I was 6, just like OP but I don't live in an english speaking country.



Alas Babylon said:


> _"If you don't use it, you lose it"_ essentially. Living in a monolingual English-speaking country especially meant that using the other language just became less and less common, and hence I just lost real fluency in it eventually.


yeah, my mom used to speak Russian fluently but she moved back here when she was 10 yo and eventually forgot the language but she still can read Cyrillic. I've always thought it was weird. Meanwhile, my uncle still understand Hungarian but that's because he studied there at his late teens.


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## KelsKels (Oct 4, 2011)

Yup. I took Spanish for 3 years in high school. I was actually pretty good at it for a while.. but Ive forgotten quite a bit. No me acuerdo muy bien.


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## App (Jun 28, 2013)

Cead mile failte romhalt, folks!
Munster Gaeligh (Gaelic) is my mother tongue!
Slan agus beannacht leat!
A.


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## Soilwork (May 14, 2012)

Yes although I was once asked what my first language was when I told them I was from Scotland. I'm guessing they must have thought that everyone here speaks Gaelic.


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## UndreamingAwake (Apr 11, 2011)

Nope, Dutch is. I guess I learned to form coherent sentences in English around the age of 10, 11 or so.


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## low (Sep 27, 2009)

Wey ah forst lornt mesel Geordie which is English though some don't think so. 

I have to agree with the native English speaker stereotype. Don't know the figures but I'd reckon compared to other countries we probably have one of the lowest rate of second language speakers in Europe. There just isn't much interest.

I think the stereotype is a half truth though. I was trying to learn Swedish a while back, still am, it's an on-off thing. I asked them how they learnt English. Each of them pretty much dismissed the classroom and said TV and internet. I suspect the classroom (i.e. grammar) probably helped them more than they appreciate but it's enforced by English media. We don't really have any environmental exposure or immediate need to learn another language here past sitting in a classroom once a week. I can't flick and watch e.g. Spanish cartoons. Maybe you can somehow with a special dish and subscription but the average population won't. Another thing they said was that they start at 9. We started at around 12.

Maybe the internet makes it different now but even then it's a conscious special interest thing.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

low said:


> *Wey ah forst lornt mesel Geordie* which is English though some don't think so.


Well (or why?) I first learnt myself Geordie? /learnt Geordie?



low said:


> Also yeah that's why I like the internet it makes it a lot easier to access foreign media.
> 
> Maybe you can somehow with a special dish and subscription but the average population won't. Another thing they said was that they start at 9. We started at around 12.
> 
> Maybe the internet makes it different now but even then it's a conscious special interest thing.


Yeah the internet makes it easier to access foreign and non English language entertainment/media now which is good


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## hdth (Jun 12, 2013)

english is my first language. I know some french and want to be fluent in Japanese.


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## Kascheritt (Mar 7, 2012)

No, it's my third. Studied English since 6th grade in high school.


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## low (Sep 27, 2009)

Persephone The Dread said:


> Well (or why?) I first learnt myself Geordie? /learnt Geordie?


You got it.


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## VividImagination (Aug 20, 2013)

Unsure. I learnt Dutch, Arabic, and English all around the same time.


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## BillDauterive (Oct 24, 2012)

Learned it around age 6 and forgot my own native language. My brain can only fit one language. :clap


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## CristianNC (Jun 24, 2012)

Nope, Romanian is. But I started learning English when I was very young so I'm quite familiar with it. Most of the times I find myself thinking in English which is quite annoying sometimes haha. Also, I can hold a conversation in French but nothing too fancy (also, my accent is terrible both in English and French, very similar to the stereotypical Russian accent).


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## monotonous (Feb 1, 2013)

is the language i now promote to use everywhere but now my first


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## Crimson Lotus (Jul 26, 2013)

Nope. It all started when I was around 7 or 8 and I got Ocarina of Time for the N64 as a birthday present. I loved the game but couldn't understand the story so I just took a dictionary and slowly but surely learnt to read and write the language over the years.

I also learnt to orally understand it by watching CNN International (I have no idea why a basic cable has a channel in English with no subtitles when way less than 5% of people in this country are actually fluent at English). When you can understand what some Arab guy with terrible English and heavy accent is saying then you can understand just about anything... except for that place in the UK (Wales I think?) with the super bizarre accent that doesn't even sound like English.

My speaking does suck quite simply because I can't really practice it outside of the occasional singing in the shower lol.


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## Tiago89 (Mar 24, 2013)

No, it's portuguese.


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## Mlochail (Jul 11, 2012)

Dutch is my native language. Russian was my almost native language but my mom decided not to learn me. English is now my second native language. I'm way too comfortable in English not to consider it a native language.


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## twitchy666 (Apr 21, 2013)

*Yep*

But everyone I ever speak to 
doesn't seem to ever 'gone to school' to learn it or care to understand it
The majority of people I have to deal with (controlling my life) 
have zero grasp of vocabulary, grammar, tense, prepositions or punctuation
Including my parents and family

It's all just grunting. Lips, teeth, tongue, vocal chords astray

applying to all other languages?

I adore deft poetry - equivalent to all machine code as an art.
I stick with only SQL. All the rest is meaningless, although we have to advance and use the silicon being used. All the meat on the bones is data (content) we need to get in and out, model, structure and put to good use. No pretty graphics, please

The social mountain of failure of others to be articulate
I see the root of communication: "hello"
* THAT IS IT*

From there, I use hand gestures to get anything into a person's skull
Well... can't do that on the phone


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## Archeron (Aug 11, 2013)

No.
I've started learning english the middle school.


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## Radical But Legal (Aug 11, 2013)

Nope, it isn't. I learned to understand English pretty well at about age 6-7, thanks to cartoons. I remember when I was about 12, I already understood and talked better than my English teacher. By the time I was finishing school, I was the best at speaking in English in the entire town, which is about 100.000 people. My only teachers were movies, cartoons, rap music (they say a lot of words really quick in a bunch of different accents), TV shows, internet.


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## Ivy60 (Aug 16, 2013)

Yep.
But I like learning French more as a language.


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## Northern Lights (Jul 22, 2010)

No, my first language is German. 

I started learning English when I was 11 or 12, along with Spanish and French.


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## Dane (Jul 27, 2009)

English is my native language. 

I've acquired a basic knowledge of several foreign languages as an adult. What they taught in school didn't stick much.


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## Vuldoc (Sep 8, 2011)

i guess it's common for us spanish speakers to have started learning english at around 4-5. my english is better than my spanish though.


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## Banzai (Jun 4, 2009)

I don't really get all this "first language"/"mother tongue" etc, it seems pretty deceiving. English isn't the first language I learnt but it's by far my strongest language. I can just about have a conversation with someone in my "mother tongue".


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## Mushie (Sep 21, 2013)

Norwegian  We started learning it in school, but I've learnt it best by watching movies as a child


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## Choa (Feb 5, 2013)

No. My first language is Arabic. I started learning English when I was 9.


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## Nekomata (Feb 3, 2012)

Yes it is ;__; would rather have something else as a first language though xD


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