Is English your first language?

[Sylvanas]

My first language is Norwegian. I grew up with Sky and Super channel, so that's where I first learned English. I recall writing a love letter in English at the age of 5. Probably full of typos, but I've always been very comfortable with writing and understanding it. When I was about 7, we got a new neighbour. She was Irish, and I was the only one in my family who was able to understand what she was saying. She spoke no Norwegian at all for the first few years. I learned a lot from her. Even some Gaelic (which I've since forgotten).

We were taught some basic English from 4th grade and up. It was very posh and dated though, and the teachers often got things wrong. Speaking English is a whole different matter. I know exactly how to pronounce the words, but because of my accent, they come out sounding a bit weird. I have no trouble making myself understood, but the accent bothers me a bit

[Irishred]

My first language is American LOL and it is not as good as it should be.... Born in Ohio to a NJ/Cleveland father and Mid-Ohio mother that grew up in Amish farm country. We moved to Atlanta when I was 6. My cousins in Ohio used to make fun of my southern accent cause it got far WORSE when noticed something I said or mentioned where I am from. I can loose it completely however and even pick up other accents if I am around someone from else where.

Anyway, ......... I am rambling...

Oh, I learned German in High school and can read it and surprisingly understand more than I remember, close relation of the German and English languages ... if that make sense. I Took Russian in college and love to try and read sub-titles, I don't remember as much as I should (need to get those books out ) My DH grew up as a teen in Miami, Florida and learned quite a bit of Spanish but doesn't use it much. He listens to the local spanish speaking population and can tell most of what they say though accents and such make some of it hard. I have tried to teach our kids some Spanish, we can count and know some words (depends on which one you ask as age ranges are great as to how much they know). I also know some Sing Language.

[swanns]

My first language is Finnish, I didn't know a word of English until the age of 9. I'm fluent in it now though

I've studied a bunch of different languages but I can only speak those two and Swedish. I thought I could also speak German but this Summer proved I really can't, lol. I understand pretty well though. Currently trying to become fluent in Swahili at the uni

[Nera]

My first language is Dutch(:
Learned English... at...

Eh It's natural for Dutch people to speak many languages... Since Holland is quite small.

[Iylivarae]

Swiss German is my first language. I started learning English at the age of 12. Here, all people have to learn at least 2 foreign languages.

I do use English quite a lot, for my aunt is from the US (I'm having lunch with her once a week) and the lab language is also English... good training.

[Samitra]

My mother tongue is Swedish. According to my mother I started speaking very early, and haven't stopped talking since.

We started learning English in school when I was nine, but we learned a few words already in pre-school. (I still remember one song we used to sing about the colours). And I did English until I was 18. And at uni, some of the literature is in English, and when I did rhetoric we had seminars late at night over the internet with students at Stanford uni.

Oh, and I have a letter of recommendation from my student nation saying that I'm used to leading the work in the cafeteria using English, since I worked a lot with international students. But really, I mostly used my own made up language constisting of English, French, Swedish and Värmländska (a Swedish dialect).

I'm not fluent in English, far from it, but I could probably manage living in an English speaking country.

And I speak some French aswell, I started studying it when I was twelve, and continued until I was 20. I also spent a whole year studying at a French high school when I was 18-19. That messed up both my English and Swedish for a while, but now everything is back to normal again

[halo_tightens]

I'm really quite envious of those who live in countries where it's normal to grow up with several languages, or at least more than one! I think many people in the US learn to speak English as small children and then never need to bother with any others, since so many people worldwide know English.

It's SO much easier, from what I've seen, to learn a language as a small child than it is later in life. I wish I had been started on other languages from birth! Now it would take a lot of time and study for me to really master another tongue, and I don't always have that much time to spare. Maybe one day...

[KarenLynn]

English is my second language; Norwegian is my first. I'm decently fluent in English, though I doubt I'll ever speak it quite as well as I do Norwegian.

I also know bits and pieces of French and Hungarian and understand some German, though I don't speak either language well enough to actually use it for much. It's a pity, considering I actually made an effort to learn French; I lived in Hungary for years; and I've had regular opportunities to use German had I known it.

halo tightens - I often wish I'd grown up bilingual, but we didn't start learning English in school until 4th grade. My child will learn both English and Norwegian from the start, though.

[Nacaya]

English is my second language, my first is German. I started lerning English at the age of ...erm... 11 or so.
I also had to learn French in school. I can still read it an understad bits and pieces, but I can't speak it anymore (I think I have a bad accent and the grammar nearly kills me).
Last year I tried to teach me some Dutch, but I didn't continue it, sadly. It's really easy for me since it's very close to German. Maybe I'll give it a second try soon.

[enfys]

English is my first language and I voted it as my only one because I don't believe I speak Welsh well enough to class it as a second language. DH went to Welsh language school so when we converse in Welsh I often have to ask him to repeat things slower. I read Welsh when there are no English copies left of leaflets. Here Welsh announcements come first over tannoys so I'm one of the first to move when the train platform is changed or something.

I find it hard to learn languages because the way we are taught English is so bad. Things like sentence structure weren't considered importand so working out where a verb goes is actually pretty hard. I'm very goos a remembering words, I'm just not confident in making the sentences.

Maybe Welsh is my second language. Pants. I threw the results.