Who does not speak English as a native language?

[Feirefiz]

We have posters from all over the world, but most are from English-speaking countries although some are living abroad at the moment. I assume that we also have quite a number of native bilinguals from different backgrounds.
Now I am looking for people who don't speak English as a native language at all. Did you learn English in school? Did anyone immigrate later than as a toddler?


Like most Germans in recent years I learned English as my first foreign language in school. In my whole life I spent a grand total of three weeks in English-speaking countries. Although I read and listen to English material regularly, I rarely use it actively.
While we are at it I would like to apologize to everyone who had to put up with my shameless attempts to practice my English in the past few years. Your patience has been invaluable.

[kk fusion]

Native German resident and speaker here. Learned basics of English in school. Polished it up a bit during travels. Large parts of grad-level uni were in an English environment. Hanging out mostly in English-speaking internet since 2001.

I'm mostly here for actual content though, not for writing practice.

[Harlequin]

In my whole life I spent a grand total of three weeks in English-speaking countries.

Less than one week total for me.

I'm Swedish and learned English in school like all Swedes.

[Claptree]

Another Swede here. I learned English in school and from all forms of media, and spent three months in the UK. I also used to hang out at an aussie bar in Sweden which was frequented by a lot of English speakers, who tended to hog the pool table. I got a bit of practice there.

[Art Rock]

Dutch, learned English in school, started reading English books almost exclusively about 30 years ago. Lived in Singapore for almost 4 years, married a Chinese girl, with English being our common language, work in a multinational... it may not be my native language, but it is getting close.

[Malaky]

French here. I've learned english at school about 16 years ago. I always had a very average level up until I got on the internet in 1998. I then gradually got better and better because I was trying to read, and then reading fluently, materials on topics that actually interested me. I also learned a lot listening to my favorite songs and looking up the lyrics, singing along.

As of now, I have no problem reading english for work or my own enjoyment, even scientific studies or technical stuff, and I can write it really good, though I can't write something like a scientific article or similar, like I can do in french. I can now pretty much follow a movie without subtitles, or watching news/docs in english, if I concentrate. But I still can't understand all of it. It also depends on the accent.

I can speak english (with an horrible accent) but I must have talked in english to someone for whom it's its first language only three or four times.

[iampunha]

While we are at it I would like to apologize to everyone who had to put up with my shameless attempts to practice my English in the past few years. Your patience has been invaluable.

Please, please keep doing it.

One of the biggest thrills I get as a formerly fluent French speaker is when French speakers tolerate my French attempts.

I'd even post in French except I doubt we have a mod who could struggle through ces mots-ci sans babelfish ou quelque chose comma ca (these words without babelfish or something like it).

[Giles]

I'd even post in French except I doubt we have a mod who could struggle through ces mots-ci sans babelfish ou quelque chose comma ca (these words without babelfish or something like it).

Bellissima! Sie sprechen Franzoesisch exactement comme moi!

[iampunha]

I'd even post in French except I doubt we have a mod who could struggle through ces mots-ci sans babelfish ou quelque chose comma ca (these words without babelfish or something like it).

Bellissima! Sie sprechen Franzoesisch exactement comme moi!

Italian, German and French. (Had to look up Franzoesisch.)

Damn, son. On peut pas ecrire avec si beaucoup de langues, mais les americains n'apprennent pas les langues exotiques avant c'est trop retard. C'est idiotique; le plus des langues on etudie avant 13 ans, plus ou moins, le plus on peut faire avec eux.

(I can't write in so many languages, but Americans don't take foreign languages before it's too late. It's idiotic; the more languages you study before about 13 years old or so, the more you can do with them.)

(It has been a VERY long time since I wrote much in French.)

[Giles]

Bellissima! Sie sprechen Franzoesisch exactement comme moi!

Italian, German and French. (Had to look up Franzoesisch.)

Right -- I hope I was making it clear that English was my native language, and I can only splash around smatterings of other languages.

[prr]

In the most purely technical of senses. I was raised in a household (in Brooklyn NY) where my parents lived with me and my maternal grandmother, who spoke only Yiddish. I spent all day mostly with my grandma, or with my parents who spoke to each other and to grandma in Yiddish (though both were native English-speakers who grew up in Yiddish speaking households themselves). I began to speak abnormally early, and it wasn'[t until a while passed that my folks realized that a kid who spoke only Yiddish might be at a disadvantage, so they forbade my grandma to have extended conversations with me and tried themselves to speak only English when I was around, which I pretty much was 24/7. I don't think grandma enjoyed this arrangement very much, and when she died (I was seven) I never really heard much Yiddish and lost all of mine.

At this point I have a few hundred word voabulary left, and the ability to understand my first language if people speak slowly enough, but basically it's gone. I do try to inspire my foreign students with the strange fact that the guy who's teaching them English is not a native speaker himself.

Also in grad school, one of my linguistics professors said he heard a touch of something vaguely Germanic in my pronunciation, which no else ever heard and which I denied, until I remembered about my grandma--his head lit up like a giant light bulb and he spent the next few years bragging on his keen ear for language.

[iampunha]

Also in grad school, one of my linguistics professors said he heard a touch of something vaguely Germanic in my pronunciation, which no else ever heard and which I denied, until I remembered about my grandma--his head lit up like a giant light bulb and he spent the next few years bragging on his keen ear for language.

What was it?

I ask because I can tell in the office just after a few words whether a person learned Spanish or English first. If the English comes along early enough, you can't tell which was learned first. But my editor, for example, learned Spanish first. Her S's are Spanish.

[Feirefiz]

Sorry, I didn't mean to abandon this thread for days. Thanks for your answers!

Please, please keep doing it.

Ok, I will.

[prr]

What was it?

I don't even remember anymore. He may not have specified, wishing to be perceived as the brilliant, lovably eccentric genius that he wanted everyone to think of him as. Probably a vowel inflection or something subtle like that, that only he and some breeds of dogs could possibly hear.

[puppygod]

I started learning English somewhere late in primary school. It was my third language (my mother language is Polish, and I also learned some Russian before). Initially I didn't like it at all, but then somebody invented Internet and 99% of content was in English anyway, so... fast forward some fifteen years and here I am. Just pure amount of exposition to English - I'm compulsive reader and majority of what I read / watch / listen to is in English - made me capable of getting CAE certificate. I could get CPA if I had a little more fluency in speaking. Well, I plan somewhere in the future to get it anyway.

Just like OP, I spent total three weeks in English speaking countries. Well, triple that if you count Netherlands as English-speaking country.

[durian]

Sort of. I'm from Hong Kong, and I speak Cantonese as my first language. I started learning English in school since kindergarten, and back in the days, a significant part of my schooling was also done in English. I have also been living in the US since I was 17. While it is not officially my first language, I'm definitely more comfortable with English than Cantonese if it is more than just casual conversations, or if it requires dealing with any written materials.

[Kaspar Hauser]

Dane here. We learn English from 3rd grade or so, and add German or French (nowadays I think Chinese and Arabic are among the options some places) a few years later. In high school a third language is added - often Spanish. Like in Sweden and The Netherlands we use subtitles in stead of voice dubbing for films and television, so that might help a bit, too. Scandinavians in general are (said to be) pretty good at foreign languages.
On top of that I have a university degree that involved reading a lot in English, plus I have travelled an awful lot. Mostly in India, though, and I'm not exactly sure whether that has actually improved anything (apart from my Hinglish, of course).

[Borisch]

Icelandic. Learned English as a second language, my father started teaching me when I was around five-ish (he's Icelandic too, he just thought it was important). Went to an English speaking high school in Sweden. Third language time line wise is Swedish, although I'm much more proficient in Swedish than English as I've lived here for about...20 years? Wait...its 20 years since I moved here on Friday. This calls for a party.

[troubleagain]

(I can't write in so many languages, but Americans don't take foreign languages before it's too late. It's idiotic; the more languages you study before about 13 years old or so, the more you can do with them.)

I agree, and it's a damned shame. I didn't get to study a second language until high school, when I took Spanish. I had somewhat of a nack for it, but I've never been able to practice it much, and a lot of it has left me, though I can read much better than I can speak/understand verbally.