What Is Your First Language? - Chinese, English (American, British, ...), French, German, Italian, Spanish, ...?

[AdamCalifornia]

The inspiration for this thread was provided by
Top 10 internet languages and Top 3 internet languages, and the World Poll.

What is your first language? - Chinese (Mandarin, ....), English as spoken in the British Isles,
USA, Canada, Australia, ...; French as spoken in France, Canada, ...; and so on?

This thread is not about your second (or third, ...) language, for instance,
ESL - English as a second language.

In many situations your first language is your native language or your mother tongue.

For example, you were born in the USA and your English speaking family has lived
for several generations in the USA. Therefore you are a native speaker of (American) English
which is your mother tongue and your first language.

The same applies to all other languages.

If you are a bilingual (or trilingual, ...) speaker, and both languages are listed here,
you have to choose one to vote on.
Let's say that you are a French-English bilingual speaker.
In this case you should vote on French or English. - You've got to decide.

If your first language is, say Dutch, you should vote on the 'None of the above' option.

It will be interesting to see the results of this poll.

Enjoy!

 

[yepyep_]

...

 

[IceClass]

Hungarian

 

[logwed]

engrish.

 

[ZephyrSapphire]

Now since when did my country (Malaysia) have Mandarin as the main first language? Preposterous.

 

[smallcaps]

Quote:

Originally Posted by logwed /img/forum/go_quote.gif engrish.

language, not dialect. lol, tho.

 

[krmathis]

None of the above...

 

[cyberidd]

Canadian english

 

[DrBenway]

I speak English reasonably well, which is a good thing, since it's the only language I speak.

Probably my greatest regret with regard to my education is that I didn't take the golden opportunity to learn a second language. I dropped Spanish during my senior year of high school, and then completed the language requirement at my university by the skin of my teeth. In keeping with my youthful lack of vision, I registered for the fourth semester of a four-semester requirement, took it pass/fail (only time I ever did that), and passed. Just barely.

Fast forward twenty-five or so years, and I regularly kick myself for not assiduously pursuing Spanish. I live in NYC, and I am surrounded by many, many people who are English/Spanish bilingual. Jealous, who, me? You bet I am. In this increasingly globalized world, a second language is an invaluable asset.

Yiddish disappeared from my family after my parents' generation, despite the fact that both of them grew up in bilingual English/Yiddish households. While Yiddish proficiency isn't much of an advantage in the work world, or at least not in my field, I also regret not pursuing this language of my heritage. When my older relatives (all in their 70s and 80s now) get together, the Yiddish comes out to play, and those of us in the (relatively) younger generation have not the slightest idea what they are saying. And we don't get the jokes.

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

 

[Tiemen]

I had to vote: None of the above.
I'm from the Netherlands, so my native language is Dutch.

 

[Bonthouse]

Dutch. But control I do english well.

 

[Jplaz]

English, but I can speak German pretty well...

 

[Mario_Fpolis]

Português, or portuguese.

Mind you that is Brazilian Portuguese, and not Portugal Portuguese, since there are a lot of words with diferent meanings in this two sooo similiar languages

 

[logwed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jplaz /img/forum/go_quote.gif English, but I can speak German pretty well...

dude, ich auch, no thanks to my german 'teacher.'

 

[thechungster]

Cantonese

(I'm just ok at it, since I have lived in England for my entire life)