NEW: Is English your first langauge? (Please take the poll)

[Scheherazade]

Renewing the poll since the previous one is five years old.

(Yeah, I am ageist like that.)

[dawgsnlocust]

Scots (Ma mither tongue) is sometimes considered a dialect of English rather than a language in it's own right. :rage:

[Virgil]

Yes, more or less my only tongue.

[Scheherazade]

I am wondering if the make-up of the Forum has remained the same over the years. We used to have a heavy ESL/EFL speaking population.

[David Lurie]

Italian (or maybe Neapolitan) is my first language.

[humpty dumpty]

My first language is Persian.:)

[hillwalker]

I would have to say - Welsh is my mother tongue, and I learnt English in primary school as a 'second' language when I was 5. I did my secondary school education through the medium of Welsh but now rarely get the chance to speak, read or indeed write it.
And there are only two members of my immediate family left who I still converse with in Welsh as all the others became Anglicised years ago.

[Wilde woman]

Technically, Cantonese is my first language, but Chinese is not a language I can read or write in. So English would be the first language is which I'm literate.

[Jesterhead]

danish is my first language.

[Dodo25]

Swiss-German is my first language. Started learning English at age 13.

[Scheherazade]

This is amazing: ESL/EFL speakers make 70% of the Forum population.

[Virgil]

This is amazing: ESL/EFL speakers make 70% of the Forum population.

That's only on a sample size of nineteen. You'll need quite a few more to really zero in the real percentage.

[Scheherazade]

That's only on a sample size of nineteen. hate to do this to an engineer but...

5 + 12 = 17

(Oh, who am I kidding??? I have quite enjoyed that actually! :p)

[Dodo25]

I suspect hat the ratio is always biased towards ESL. Speaking English as a second language is 'more special' and hence people to whom this applies are more likely to bother taking the poll.

[cgrillo]

English is my first and only language.

[Maximilianus]

We used to have a heavy ESL/EFL speaking population.
My category too :nod:

[TurquoiseSunset]

First Afrikaans, then English...

[DieterM]

The Styrian dialect is my first language, then German, English, French and Spanish.

[Amylian]

Arabic is my mother language, but a kind of a village-based dialect that totally differs from the Standard-Arabic system of speaking...!!!

[Niamh]

Native language is Irish but English is my first language.

[mona amon]

My mother tongue is Tamil. :)

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Swedish is my native tongue.
English is clearly my second language.
I am less fluent in French and German.

/Claes

[esra yılmaz]

My first language is turkish

[Edenne]

Clearly my second language. My mother tongue is French but I am using French, English and Danish everyday.

[dafydd manton]

I would have to say - Welsh is my mother tongue, and I learnt English in primary school as a 'second' language when I was 5. I did my secondary school education through the medium of Welsh but now rarely get the chance to speak, read or indeed write it.
And there are only two members of my immediate family left who I still converse with in Welsh as all the others became Anglicised years ago.

Rydw i'n falch o chi. Dw i'n Saes, ond dw i'n ceision dysgu yr iaith. Mae hi'n annodd iawn, a mae hi'm amhosib ymarfer, oherwydd dw i'n byw yn Sheffield.

[Nyu001]

Spanish is my native language.

[Whistle]

My first language is Swedish :)

[DoCho]

English is my only language because of the poor education system where I live not forcing me to be fluent in another.

[Lie]

I speak and write Norwegian, but most of what I read is in English. :grouphug:

Og akkurat nå er jeg alt for solbrent til å gå ut i det fine været...

[Biefall]

Spanish is my native language.


Spanish also! (Mexican)

I truly find it very annoying when I try to speak because I can never find te correct words to express the way I would wanted... so its very frustrating, any of you feeling the same?

[SamApples]

My mother tongue is Dutch, but my mom has lived in the US for a while and we often speak English. I mostly read in English, too.
I speak a little French and German ( I got that in school) and I can understand French and Spanish texts if I try really hard because I have Latin at school.

[Shakira]

Hindi is my first language.

[minstrelbard]

English is my first language. I used to be able to speak passable French (I went to school in Montreal) but I haven't spoken French in over thirty years, so it's pretty much all gone.

[Technophile]

English is the only language in which I'm fluent, but I can say ta four different ways in Deutsch, hello in five different languages, and good day in nine.

[Sebas. Melmoth]

1. English
2. Latin
3. Spanish
4. French

[sulmaanaslam]

No it's not but its good because it was easy to learn and i know urdu, punjabi ;)

[SleepyWitch]

mother tongue: German

fluent/near native in English

intermediate level in Spanish (speaking and writing), although I can understand most

written texts and can also understand more spoken language than I can speak myself
passive knowledge of Latin from secondary school

I've also got a smattering of Scouse and Birkenhead-English :)

[Illirya]

Nope, but i'm hardly trying to learn it well.

[Liley]

English is my third language

[Nick91]

My first languages are Swedish and German, couldn't really tell you which I learnt first...

[DarkRaven]

I voted yes, because it might as well be. Technically, Irish is my first language (I only started learning English when I was four) but my English vocabulary far exceeds my Irish at this stage, probably because I read far more English books than Irish.

I'm always curious how so many people from different linguistic backgrounds make it onto forums, and write through it so well. I suppose, thanks to Hollywood, English dominates the media almost everywhere in the world, but the grammar is so appalling to learn. =/

[pilotguide]

My native language is Hindi
But I'm pretty fluent in English too.
Most of what I read is in English as well as Hindi.

[SilentRain]

I dunno..

I've only had a two to three years of formal English education

kindergarten and some elementary school

so I think English is my first language(?)

[Lyric dreamer]

Ermm... nope ... :willy_nilly:

[yuka]

English is not my first language
my first language is chinese
but i hope i can master english :)

[clguerra]

English is not my first language, but started taking classes since I was 6 or 5 years old

[Mortis Anarchy]

I grew up speaking Spanish until I got into school. I could speak English before, but my parents spoke Spanish--my mother at the time didn't know English. But I only really use English unless I'm in Mexico.

[ybrant6712]

Gujarati is my mother tongue ,but technically speaking I can't read or write in Gujarati, I feel comfortable communicating in English.guess....I guess that makes it the first language.

'After such knowledge,what forgiveness?Think now
History has many cunning passages............"

[janardhan-Ann]

my mother tongue is Telugu, but i read and write Kannada, so kannada & Telugu are my first languages....!

[Dream Lee]

Chinese is my first language

[Benner]

My mother language is brazilian portuguese (:

[andy13]

For me, English and French are both my "first" languages, since I was born in an English-speaking country to English-speaking parents, but immediately after birth I moved to Geneva. I grew up speaking Frenglish, that is I would intertwine English and French when speaking and even writing. This proved hard for teachers to understand me (they either spoke only French or only English), so I adapted to they country I was living in. Now I live in the US, however, so I only speak English. But, if I ever move to a French-speaking country, I can pass for a french speaker.

[weltanschauung]

My mother language is brazilian portuguese (:

that.

[MystyrMystyry]

I hope Welsh never dies for everyone's sake

[faithosaurus]

English is my first language (I live in the US), but Spanish is a second language for me.

[lslopes]

My first language is Brazilian Portuguese and I would say that it is my only one language, because I started my learning in English Language has just five or six months. So I'm just a learner in English which will be my second language.
Addicionaly I can read and write, with some difficult, in Spanish too.

[Amit Shrivastav]

I am an Indian thats why HINDI is my first language...


and i like it..

[jmnixon95]

Basically.

[Oniw17]

Does someone here keep annual records of forum demographics or something?

[BSED90]

I only speak English. The only other language I have ever taken has been Latin.

[Richard Dates]

I took da El to da Loop den went up nort ta see da Cubs.

Yes, English (Chicago dialect) is my first language.

[divi197]

:blush: HEY i m new
ma mother tongue is Hindi but i hardy read any literature in that :(

[Ravager]

I'm new here too, English is my native tongue, one I have a habit of being either loquacious in, or a complete butcher thereof.

[JanineXD]

No, My first launguage is Tagalog. ( Filipino language ).

:)

[Roysson]

English is my first and only language.

Same here, not that I haven't tried to learn numerous other languages!

[tonywalt]

English is my second language. Spanish is my third. I don't have a first language...I really should though.

[cl154576]

English isn't really my first language, but I forgot much of my first language after I went to school.

[farnoosh]

My mother language is Persian (farsi), and in school they taught us Arabic and English(far less than arabic)as well,I'm learning French on my own...

[Lanteri]

Polish :)

[Calidore]

I'm told that I initially spoke total gibberish, but then picked up English as I went along.

[CarpeNixta]

My first language was Catalan, then Spanish and after came English

[Ecurb]

This is amazing: ESL/EFL speakers make 70% of the Forum population.

I doubt it. I'll bet a higher percentage of English as a second language Literature Forum members participated in this poll than English as a First Language members. Differential participation in voluntary polls is a very common way in which the results are skewed.

[Scheherazade]

I doubt it. I'll bet a higher percentage of English as a second language Literature Forum members participated in this poll than English as a First Language members. Differential participation in voluntary polls is a very common way in which the results are skewed.Seems like the results have changed since then:

Yes: 48.33

No: 51.67

[Yasaman]

Persian is my first language and then comes the English language and then Deutsche!

[odliam]

Well, let's see:

English is my main language, I do not know if call it my first now, even if it was the one I started talking and reading.

I can make comprehensible noises in some other languages as Spanish, Italian, French and an almost disgusting German, picked up while traveling, also I can make myself look like a windmill when I try to make myself understood with gestures!

I must recognize in shame I cannot speak Klingon despite the huge efforts put in the learning tasks!

[Maria Bonita]

My native language is Spanish. I'm grateful for that because I can read Borges and Quixote. It's such a beautiful language, but I learned English because my natural instincts told me to do so :biggrinjester:

[Shazz]

It's ambiguous - both English and Spanish are my mother tongues!!

[cacian]

No English is not my first language.

[PoeticPassions]

I voted no, since it isn't my mother-tongue, but I would say that I speak and write English with much more ease and ability than my first language, due to my life's circumstances.

[Vallari]

Hindi is my first language. :]

[abeltarver]

english is my mother tongue and my only language. as an american i believe english should be the official language of the united states, but i think it would be wonderful if everyone could speak and understand all languages.

[constancesaltz]

Yes , English is my first language

[Elizabeth19]

I've started learning English in 2000

[Mirai]

English is not my native language.
I speak Japanese.

[crusoe]

German

[Neringa]

Lithunian is my mother tongue

[TheQuill]

Uhmmm... I'm a Spanish speaker, but for some reason I've always felt more at ease writing in English :)

[CaptainHatteras]

No, English is not my first language.

[SkyCetacean]

Yes, it is. (Born in America)

[skycloud86]

It is indeed my first, and currently only language. I am not pleased with my monoglot status and hope one day to be fluent in at least two other languages.

[ennison]

Ghaidhlig is my first and favourite but I'm fairly fond of this foreign tongue.

[Aylinn]

English is my second language, Polish is my mother tongue. I also have a tacit knowledge of Spanish.

[NanoTech]

No, I am an ESLer. Those who live in the Us and are immigrants would know what that stands for. The rest can scratch their heads or ask :)

[Hipatia]

English is not my first language. I am Spanish =)

[FranRedStar]

yo soy espanol,ingles es mi segundo lenguaje

[hannah_arendt]

Polish is my first language. I speak also English, Spanish and German.

[Peirevidal]

My first language is the language of Camões.

[XaSp18]

No. Mine's Filipino. English serve as my second language

[Negin]

My mother tongue is Persian.

[Tobeornotobe]

I came to United States when I was in middle school. I had to take ESL classes for about two years and then took off to "regular" classes.

[hannah_arendt]

I came to United States when I was in middle school. I had to take ESL classes for about two years and then took off to "regular" classes.

Did you have many problems in participating "regular" classes?

[Tobeornotobe]

Did you have many problems in participating "regular" classes?

Well, I got out of ESL by the time I was a sophomore, and I had to take 10th grade English class. There, the English teacher - in her 20's, Irish - gave me difficult times. In one writing assignment, she gave me an F with 0%. I don't know if y'all are familiar with the grading system in United States, but I got a zero on the assignment. Of course, the writing was awful, but it is still hard to believe that a teacher would bluntly give zero on an assignment... Well that's one of my bitter experiences of not being able to write in English as well as I wanted to.

[hannah_arendt]

Well, I got out of ESL by the time I was a sophomore, and I had to take 10th grade English class. There, the English teacher - in her 20's, Irish - gave me difficult times. In one writing assignment, she gave me an F with 0%. I don't know if y'all are familiar with the grading system in United States, but I got a zero on the assignment. Of course, the writing was awful, but it is still hard to believe that a teacher would bluntly give zero on an assignment... Well that's one of my bitter experiences of not being able to write in English as well as I wanted to.

I had also bad experience with my academic teachers mostly because I had courage to express my own opinions. Polish education doesn`t prepare children to be creative. Majority of graduates has very serious problems with finding any job.

If it comes to writing, I had good marks but I don`t that I won`t be able to write as a native speaker. I would like to speak, write better because I have many ideas for stories, poems etc but at the same time I am 27, work and have my own family and I don`t have much time for learning.

[XaSp18]

I had also bad experience with my academic teachers mostly because I had courage to express my own opinions. Polish education doesn`t prepare children to be creative. Majority of graduates has very serious problems with finding any job.

If it comes to writing, I had good marks but I don`t that I won`t be able to write as a native speaker. I would like to speak, write better because I have many ideas for stories, poems etc but at the same time I am 27, work and have my own family and I don`t have much time for learning.


Is ESL somewhat similar with English for Specific Purpose (ESP)?

[Yorubun]

I speak Bahasa. I am still learning English. C:

[OnePlus]

You can talk to me in Spanish, English and French

[Dreamwoven]

Mine was Hungarian, both parents spoke it fluently, as did my uncle and aunt who lived with us in London, so I learned it naturally without effort. But after leaving home I gradually forgot much. How to respond to the poll? English was my main language as it is now.

[AncientSunlight]

No, it is my second: Dutch is my first language.

[pro161]

My first Language is English, yep.

But I can also speak Spanish. :)

[Scarlet Nettle]

Nope. It's not even my second language. It's my third language.

[Ten Ritoru]

English is my second language. I am a Serbian. :)

[Mlfhunter]

English is my native language.

[TheAlertDriver]

Spanish is my first language, English my second, Italian is next on the list.

[BartV90]

Dutch is my native language, English a good second though. I'm studying it so I should be at least somewhat capable of producing good English!

[bare-elf]

English is my first language, but after reading some of my posts on various web sites, editing stories I have written I sometimes wonder.

[UlyssesE]

First language. Though I can speak conversationally in two others (latin is dead, but the conversation wouldn't be).

[Margerma]

Second one. My native is Russian. The only problem with a second language - it is informative for me. I do not feel a style and beauty of reading on English. I would love to get this feeling of unique style from an English book. Saying that, even offensive words would not sound so offensive for non-natives as for natives, lol.

[Number 34]

English is my only language. Know a handful of French words but not enough to have a conversation.

[fleamailman]

("...well it could be so about me..." went the goblin not so sure really, and certainly without any recollection therein, before adding "...I mean if anyone else here is anything to go by now, I imagine I too spoke babytalk first and then progressed from there to something that these adults speak now...", but the truth was that the goblin just spoke like any other goblin did, just your average everyday sort of goblin so to speak, as he looked around for the coffee machine and some friendly faces to go with it, saying "...ok, so who'll swap cabbages for kings with me, moreover who can advise me upon the exchange rate...")

[ElsieMcHenry]

English is my first Language.

[Almaas Faarii]

no endlish is not my 1st language

[Sambed prakash]

My first language is english literature because i have interest in it . But i have my mother tongue as my first subject . Ok guys lets see what comes next

[jekodama]

No, my native language is Spanish.

[PetSounds]

English is my first language, but I also speak fragmented French, German, and Latin, and I'm fluent in Nadsat.

[Dreamwoven]

English, though Hungarian was the language I learned as an infant and now Swedish in old age. But both Swedish and Hungarian have faded as we speak English at home.

[Ela.Em]

No, my first language is German.

[Dreamwoven]

They say that the first language you learn as an infant is the one you will return to in old age. As an infant everyone around me spoke Hungarian, so I naturally picked it all up. I hadn't realised how this had happened, but it did. Even today I sometimes sing old Hungarian songs that I learned in my teens.

[Malonso]

Spanish is my first language. I get by in French too and I understand a little bit of Euskera, the language spoken in the Basque Country.
I think that Scots can be considered a language in its own right. I studied that a dialect is just a language spoken in a specific place. I think it sounds great.

[CHRISTINE77]

English is the only language I am fluent in although I did have about 6 years of French, so I can sort of read it. I also know a lot of Latin prayers.

[Steve Van]

English is my mother tongue, and Swahili was my survival in the market place tongue in the 1950s through 60s. Can greet in several other African languages and cuss a little unfortunately. Danish is my choice of pastry only.

[anton notna]

French (France) is my first language in this present life of mine ^^

[mleigh]

yes, English is my first language, through not too good at it, I like to mess around with German a bit.

[rebel1903]

German is my first language.

[Tamago]

Romanian here.
I started studying French in school first, before English. So I guess French should be my second language (though I really don't know it very well. Or well. Or at all!)
^^"

[sarahlee]

English is my second language, my first one is Portuguese.

[LaLeLu]

My first language is Spanish. I teach and translate to/from English, French and Portuguese.

[Dreamwoven]

I am the only one on this forum who speaks Hungarian? Well I am quite old - born in 1942. But all my relatives could speak Hungarian, though they are all long dead. It used to be a major European language in the Austrian Empire, so sad that it has disappeared. My mother and Aunt did a lot of baking during my childhood, selling cakes to the large minority of Austro-Hungarians who lived in London.

Some links of interest: will be found in this entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary

[Dreamwoven]

I am the only one on this forum who speaks Hungarian? Well I am quite old - born in 1942. But all my relatives could speak Hungarian, though they are all long dead. It used to be a major European language in the Austrian Empire, so sad that it has disappeared. My mother and Aunt did a lot of baking during my childhood, selling cakes to the large minority of Austro-Hungarians who lived in London.

Some links of interest: will be found in this entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary

[Danik 2016]

Hi DW,

I´m glad to see you back. It has become difficult for me to enter Litnet, because of recurrent technical issues.
I don´t speak Hungarian myself, but I remember a Hungarian bakery near by.

[Dreamwoven]

No doubt they sell strudel. :)

[Dreamwoven]

It is located in Hampstead, just looked it up.

[Danik 2016]

They did sell strudell in the bakery here in São Paulo. Unfortunatelly it doesn´t exist any more.

[Lependule]

French is my native language

[amber86]

yes,but i can also speak another language

[tonywalt]

Yes. But I worked for Brazilian banks for quite a while and speak some Portuguese.

[Danik 2016]

Oh!When was that? In what place from Brazil?

[tonywalt]

Mostly belo horizonte, but also minas gerais, sp, and rio. that would have been circa 2000's

[Danik 2016]

Minas Gerais is a beautiful state but specially suffering under Corona now.

You probably enjoyed the Rio beaches too.