Is it overrated to be a native English speaker?

[[neon.zombie]]

Greetings fellow linguaphiles,

I'm sure that many of you, like myself, are native English speakers. Do you find it a positive or a negative thing to be a native speaker of English? Does the environment in which you live encourage expansion beyond just the English language?

The reason I ask this is that recently I find myself being more and more jealous of people that live with neighbouring countries of different languages (or even dialects)--I'm from New Zealand, and so although we have Te Reo Maori, it is not a "necessity" to know Maori in order to get by in our society. Our closest "foreign language" is... the Australian accent. XD

Nobody could deny that English is one of the most prominent languages of the world today: not -the- most influential, necessarily, but a lot of English-speakers that I know believe that it's not longer necessary to learn another language, because it's so influential on world-culture. I sometimes wish that I grew up somewhere like Finland or Germany (my two favourite countries), so that I'd be growing up to be a polyglot; a place where speaking two or more languages (semi-proficiently) is the norm sounds like heaven to a linguaphile like me!

So what do you reckon? Blessing, curse, both?  

[Dragonfire Goddess]

I think that English as your native language is a great starting point, because as you said it is a very widespread language so you can often count on SOMEONE knowing English in most places you visit. After all you can't know every language in the world. (or can you?) The thing that I think is a disadvantage about being a native English speaker is less the language and more the environment that often comes with the language. A lot of English speakers are very superior about their language and in English-speaking countries it isn't always encouraged to learn more languages. Personally I think that from a very young age all children should be taught at least two languages, and wish that I had begun serious language education sooner. I live in the U.S., and a lot of people are really irritating in how little they value other languages here. Granted Spanish is now being pushed more just because of all the Hispanic immigrants, but it's not neccesary to know Spanish here and most other languages, even prominent ones, are ignored. So to sum up, I think having English as your native language is great, but it's no excuse to neglect education of other languages, as is often the case.

Off topic, GERMAN. heart  

[Kid_kun]

well i think its good that english is your native language. its a universal language that makes you can communicate with ppl from all over the world. In my country (malaysia), if someone can speak english smoothly, that person is a great person and envied by lotsa ppl =). learning english is important in my country. most subject is requested to be teached in english nowadays.

one disadvantages is i guess that its kinda hard for you to learn more languages i guess. well like in other country, you've learn native language and also english(since its universal). that's made them learned more than one language since kids. =) like me, i've learned about 3 languages since kids.  

[Daionii]

I guess I'm annoyed that my English is better than my Welsh, since English isn't the native language of my country scream . But if I wasn't brought up in this environment, with this really annoying prominent language that's taken over Britain and is making its way across the rest of the world... I wouldn't appreciate all the minority languages, so I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today xD

It's nice to have as an easy way of communication with others I guess. I would be a completely different person if I'd had to learn English. Or maybe I'd be even more passionate about minority languages, who knows o__O

But yay for Maori! I want to learn it really badly >w<  

[Call Me Apple]

Dragonfire Goddess

I think that English as your native language is a great starting point, because as you said it is a very widespread language so you can often count on SOMEONE knowing English in most places you visit. After all you can't know every language in the world. (or can you?) The thing that I think is a disadvantage about being a native English speaker is less the language and more the environment that often comes with the language. A lot of English speakers are very superior about their language and in English-speaking countries it isn't always encouraged to learn more languages. Personally I think that from a very young age all children should be taught at least two languages, and wish that I had begun serious language education sooner. I live in the U.S., and a lot of people are really irritating in how little they value other languages here. Granted Spanish is now being pushed more just because of all the Hispanic immigrants, but it's not neccesary to know Spanish here and most other languages, even prominent ones, are ignored. So to sum up, I think having English as your native language is great, but it's no excuse to neglect education of other languages, as is often the case.

Off topic, GERMAN. heart

Thats very true :3
I think a lot of people think because English is so widely spoken, they dont ever have to learn another language...But its a fad. English will fade and another language will be on the rise.

Actually while in Scotland, a French family had no idea where they were in the city. And we used Spanish as the medium, it was pretty interesting.  

[[neon.zombie]]

Daionii

I guess I'm annoyed that my English is better than my Welsh, since English isn't the native language of my country scream . But if I wasn't brought up in this environment, with this really annoying prominent language that's taken over Britain and is making its way across the rest of the world... I wouldn't appreciate all the minority languages, so I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today xD

It's nice to have as an easy way of communication with others I guess. I would be a completely different person if I'd had to learn English. Or maybe I'd be even more passionate about minority languages, who knows o__O

But yay for Maori! I want to learn it really badly >w<

Wow, a fan of Maori? I don't speak it (I'm not Maori, often mistaken for one though) and only have schoolgirl Maori... But, kia ora! razz  

[GLBT]

I'm actually known for occasionally announcing how cool it is that we're having a conversation in English, even though I'm native.

people all over the world want to learn English! I speak it fluently! To someone, I'm like how I see native Spanish and French speakers.

All languages are cool. >3<

 

[Daionii]

[neon.zombie]

Wow, a fan of Maori? I don't speak it (I'm not Maori, often mistaken for one though) and only have schoolgirl Maori... But, kia ora! razz

Kia ora! :'D I love love love Maori. Our lecturer's mentioned it a few times in our sociolinguistics class. It looks so great and not particularly difficult to pronounce. I am definitely going to learn it some day.  

[[neon.zombie]]

Daionii

[neon.zombie]

Wow, a fan of Maori? I don't speak it (I'm not Maori, often mistaken for one though) and only have schoolgirl Maori... But, kia ora! razz

Kia ora! :'D I love love love Maori. Our lecturer's mentioned it a few times in our sociolinguistics class. It looks so great and not particularly difficult to pronounce. I am definitely going to learn it some day.

Let me know if you get round to learning it, and I'll find you some easy songs in Maori to sing to yourself wink  

[Lord Fon Fabre]

Even though it is annoying and somewhat overrrated, English is probably the best medium for learning other languages, so it's kinda like a trade-off. :/  

[Moonlight_Naida]

I guess it's a good thing to be a native English speaker if you don't want to learn any other languages. You can use English almost anywhere in the world and find someone there who speaks it.

On the other hand, the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn new ones. The people I know who speak English the most fluently (it's not the official language where I live) are usually those who already knew at least 2 other languages when they learned it. So it's great to live in a country where you can learn foreign languages from a very young age. The best thing is to grow up bilingual but that's not very common...

The bad side of not being a native English speaker is that if you don't want to learn English, or you're simply not good at it, it's a handicap for your carrer or for travelling.  

[Razzberry Pi]

Some days, I really hate that English is my first language, but that's not why I'm upset. I'm actually upset, because I never had any opportunity to study another language, until I was 12. I live in the US. When speaking with others in the language-learning community, I feel so behind the curve.  

[The_Brightest_Moon]

I think I'm lucky to be a native speaker; meaning I don't have to deal with learning the freaky spellings, illogical grammar and hard pronunciations of this crazy language. It seems maddening, if you think about it. However, being a native speaker of American English and living in the USA, it makes me feel like that gets me the "IGNORANT TOURIST" label slapped on me when I travel, simply because I'm American and I speak English. OR the "SHE'S ONLY GOOD FOR BEING A SPEAKING PARTNER SO PRETEND TO BE NICE AND POLITE TO HER SO YOU CAN PRACTICE AND THEN WE'LL SHUN HER LATER" label. You also feel that one a lot.

Haha in Germany I had to mostly rely on English (however I made sure I learned German phrases and used them as much as possible to be polite, and if I needed to use English I always asked very politely in German if they could speak English. Every traveller, no matter where they're from, should be considerate of the native language even if they speak very little) and people would start awkward but enthusiastic conversations like "where are you from?" and when I said "New York" most people SPAZZED and started raving about how much they love NYC and Sex and the City. It was kind of funny and ignorant in a cute way. I'm from nowhere near NYC  

[Fem_chan]

I'm often envious of native English speakers, especially from the U.S.!

But that is mainly because I come from a country that has a language problem (Belgium). I have difficulty finding a job, in my own country, because I don't speak 3-4 languages fluently enough: French, Dutch, English, German (I never had the chance to study German, as I studied Arts, wasn't part of my school's program).
...my knowledge of other languages than those seems irrelevant. There's a lot of unnecessary language and dialect elitism.

I have friends from other parts of the world (South Africa, Congo) who have similar problems. We often fantasize what it would be like, growing up in a country where nearly everyone can fluently communicate with one-another. And it's ironic my friends, from halfway down the globe, can often understand me better, than my own countrymen.

But, the fact that I knew English from a very young age, has always allowed for me to communicate with tourists from further away (but French can also get you far, many people understand French, even if they can't form sentences with it). Which is great!  

[Fem_chan]

The_Brightest_Moon

I think I'm lucky to be a native speaker; meaning I don't have to deal with learning the freaky spellings, illogical grammar and hard pronunciations of this crazy language. It seems maddening, if you think about it. However, being a native speaker of American English and living in the USA, it makes me feel like that gets me the "IGNORANT TOURIST" label slapped on me when I travel, simply because I'm American and I speak English. OR the "SHE'S ONLY GOOD FOR BEING A SPEAKING PARTNER SO PRETEND TO BE NICE AND POLITE TO HER SO YOU CAN PRACTICE AND THEN WE'LL SHUN HER LATER" label. You also feel that one a lot.

Haha in Germany I had to mostly rely on English (however I made sure I learned German phrases and used them as much as possible to be polite, and if I needed to use English I always asked very politely in German if they could speak English. Every traveller, no matter where they're from, should be considerate of the native language even if they speak very little) and people would start awkward but enthusiastic conversations like "where are you from?" and when I said "New York" most people SPAZZED and started raving about how much they love NYC and Sex and the City. It was kind of funny and ignorant in a cute way. I'm from nowhere near NYC

Isn't New York a symbol of U.S. culture?

But I agree sex and the City isn't a great reference to go by XD

On a side-note:
I often feel, dealing with young tourists from the U.S. (and the U.K. too), like a monkey doing fantastic tricks:
somehow they never seem to expect eloquence from someone like me (a young native, ethnic-looking woman). Gets me plenty free drinks.