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

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. =/

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.

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(?)

Ermm... nope ... :willy_nilly:

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

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

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.

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............"

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

Chinese is my first language

My mother language is brazilian portuguese (:

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.

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Originally Posted by Benner

My mother language is brazilian portuguese (:

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that.

I hope Welsh never dies for everyone's sake

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

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.

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


and i like it..

Basically.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

:)

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Originally Posted by cgrillo

English is my first and only language.

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

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

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

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...

Polish :)

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

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

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by Ecurb

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.

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Seems like the results have changed since then:

Yes: 48.33

No: 51.67

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

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!

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:

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

No English is not my first language.

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.

Hindi is my first language. :]