Your First Language? Options

[Pickysaurus]

I'm from England, so naturally English is my first language. And I mean proper English not any of this English (US) crap.

This post has been edited by Pickysaurus: 15 Jul 2009, 19:58

[Alias]

English, however I know a lot of irrelevant Schweizerdeutsch words due to my heritage (my parents used to name a lot of items the German name).

[MARS]

German. Learned English and French in school although there's virtually nothing left of the latter.

[NergiZed]

English first, but fluent in Chinese as well (though my writing skill isn't as good as it used to be, reading is still fine but sometimes frustrating.)

[Overdose]

I'm from English, so naturally English is my first language. And I mean proper English not any of this English (US) crap.

That's not something nice to say regardless if Americans frequented this forum or not. Also know that english(US) is the standard international english, spoken by the majority of people around the world that are not native english speakers. You need to have a little more tact in your choice of wording about the world.

Now back on topic~ My first language is portuguese, but my self taught english is my second language. I also have considerable knowledge in other Romance languages such as italian, spanish among others. French used to be my second language, we were taught french and latin at school however I forgot much of the written part but I can still understand by ear. I can also speak to some extent a fictional language from the Macross universe called Zentran but I have yet to learn how to read it. I love fictional languages. Blizzard does this very well with Warcraft, I just love the way Common (The human language) sounds. Tolkien is the master however.

[Pickysaurus]

That's not something nice to say regardless if Americans frequented this forum or not. Also know that english(US) is the standard international english, spoken by the majority of people around the world that are not native english speakers. You need to have a little more tact in your choice of wording about the world.

I wasn't intending to offend anyone. It just frustrates me. I've always though the first American settlers were somewhat dyslexic because I can't understand how simple things like 'colour' and 'centre' can be lost. The US seem to think they own the world, but forget that without Great Britain there would be no America.
I'm a patriot. I don't mean to offend people I am just proud of my country and my language. Although that is turning out to be illegal in my country T.T
Before Gordon Brown took over it was illegal to fly the Union Flag >.<

Anyways I mean no offence. I'll change it if anyone has any major objections.

[/offtopicrant]

It pretty cool that everyone here is from a diverse background. I wish I could learn Russian.

[Nidmeister]

I'm from English

I'm from England too, and am somewhat well educated in the english language, therefore the only spelling mistakes I make are down to my tremor and hitting the wrong keys on the keyboard.
Typos are easy for me, so I have to double check posts. :|

Americanizations are somewhat funny to me, I use them.

[beefJeRKy]

It's quite complicated here. I was born to Lebanese parents in Montreal so I was first exposed to Arabic as a child. However, my early schooling was in French. Add to that the fact I lived in an English neighborhood. In the end when I moved back to Lebanon, my parents placed me in a tri-lingual school though it prioritized English over French once we reached grade 8 (14 yrs of age) since all the sciences were taught in English (Arabic is somewhat retarded in this aspect). I would still call Arabic my mother tongue but in Lebanon, EVERYBODY and I mean EVERYBODY is fluent in either French or English (more of the former), so English is definitely another primary language. That said I'm also fairly fluent in French too though not to the degree of English or Arabic. I'm also taking Spanish courses now as well.

[MARS]

I'm not really sure what kind of English I'm speaking. When I started learning the language at school, they used to teach us British English but at some point, our new teacher simply stopped caring and most people started to overuse the zed. After a few years, I changed back to British English; guess I just prefer the way it sounds. It's also worth noting that I picked up most of my informal English from movies and videogames so it might be a bit of a mix between British and American English.

[Pickysaurus]

I'm not really sure what kind of English I'm speaking. When I started learning the language at school, they used to teach us British English but at some point, our new teacher simply stopped caring and most people started to overuse the zed. After a few years, I changed back to British English; guess I just prefer the way it sounds. It's also worth noting that I picked up most of my informal English from movies and videogames so it might be a bit of a mix between British and American English.

Well there are a whole load of differences as far as spelling is concerned.
British US
Colour Color
Centre Center

etc etc

[MARS]

I understand the reasoning behind most of the British spelling variant. Words like 'centre' or 'manoeuvre' seem to derive from
French, so for me, there's no logical reason to change them to 'center' or 'maneuver'. I do, however, prefer 'burned' over 'burnt'.

[Overdose]

I'm pretty sure 'burned' isn't proper (US) English. It is spoken by some people but it doesn't mean it's correct.

Nevermind. After some research I discovered both 'burned' and 'burnt' are correct as far (US) English goes. It's down to personal preference.

[Pickysaurus]

I understand the reasoning behind most of the British spelling variant. Words like 'centre' or 'manoeuvre' seem to derive from
French, so for me, there's no logical reason to change them to 'center' or 'maneuver'. I do, however, prefer 'burned' over 'burnt'.

Well it may be french. There's a lot of Latin in English.

In England (and other parts of the world) the language is degenerating (or maybe evolving). Slang is become dominant thanks to the internet

[ΓΛPΤΘΓ]

My first language is Cantonese but I write and read much better in English and possibly in general speaking too.

[Dutchygamer]

First language is Dutch. Learned English trough school, games and TV.

[Chyros]

First language is Dutch though English comes pretty natural to me. I heavily prefer English over American though, and would extremely heavily disagree that "proper" English is somehow defined as American. Though most Americans seem to be better spellers than Brits. I also know German and French but they're not nearly on par with my English or Dutch, and I know a tiny bit of Latin and ancient Greek. When I have time for it I also want to learn Spanish which I think is also a nice language, and useful besides.

[Mr.Kim]

My first language is Korean and second language is English.

To be honest, English is much better than Korean.

[Cobretti]

My native language is English, though my dad grew up speaking Spanish and taught me a little (I can only understand some Spanish now, and that's mostly because I learned Latin much later). In school I studied German (can speak it pretty well, even today) and Latin, and when I got to university I studied Japanese (not too successful) and am currently learning Russian.

[ultimentra]

I'm from England, so naturally English is my first language. And I mean proper English not any of this English (US) crap.

I take high offense to that. I am a proud American and I can say that the only US citizens that rape the english language are stereotypes and over generalizations. Something other english speaking countries have too. Yes, english is my first language.

[Sharpnessism]

Chinese then English (write mostly in British English). I find that American English makes a lot more sense though, with words like centre making no sense if you pronounce it the way it's written.

Yes I know these words are taken from other languages but it'd still make a lot more sense to change 2 letters as it makes a lot more sense.

This post has been edited by Sharpnessism: 15 Jul 2009, 23:49

[C.o.m.m.a.n.d.e....]

first language is english(US) altho i must say i dont like it very much not very interesting to me as ide like to learn Norwegian and German

[Shock]

Both stereotypical sounds of British English and Cowboy American sound evenly authentic to me. The fact that the one variant is younger than the other does not mean it should be valued less.

I am of Dutch heritage despite half the town being suspicious of me being a foreigner. (and half of FS of me being a girl, but that's a whole other topic ) and have adopted English as my second language. I fail hard at every other tongue, save a little German.

[beefJeRKy]

My first language is Cantonese but I write and read much better in English and possibly in general speaking too.

Yeah I guess my written Arabic is horrible whil my spoken Arabic is acceptable. Formal Arabic is a bitch

[Comr4de]

Spanish was my first language but as if it wasn't obvious English became my main spoken language as I moved to the US at the age of 9.

[Sargeant Rho]

My native Language is German, although I speak better in English and write better in Spanish