Can you be a native speaker in two languages?

Question

I was not born in an English-speaking country, but since birth, my mom spoke to me in one language and my dad another. It was and still is a bit of a mishmash, but I started kindergarten in America, and English is the language I'm best at. It's also the language I use and have used the most. Would English be considered my native tongue even if I was not born in an English-speaking country?

Answer 1

I find that unless you are in that situation yourself, it is very hard to understand how a native speaker of two languages really processes language. Each situation is different based on different factors the merit consideration.

What I can share from my own experience, although I was born and raised in New York, my mother-tongue is Spanish—my parents only spoke Spanish and I didn’t start speaking English until I started school. I went to a bilingual school and learned how to read and write in Spanish first, before being taught how to read and write in English. My classes were in both languages, until mid 5th grade, when we moved and my local school didn’t offer bilingual education. From there on, I was immersed in fully English classes all the way to College. I did, however, take Regents and Advance Placement Spanish classes in High School, which continued to refine my Spanish writing skills. All throughout, I have continued to interact with both languages and cultures everyday, and can easily switch from one language to the other, depending on who I am speaking to. As an interpreter, I am able to perform simultaneous interpretation because of this skill. So, am I native in both? I consider myself to be so. When I speak Spanish, other native Spanish speakers think I was born and raised in a Spanish speaking country. When I speak English, they see me and are impressed this “Latina” speaks English so well without an “accent”.

At the end of the day, I just feel privileged to be able to communicate natively in two languages—without counting the other languages I also speak—and that my language skills have opened up so many doors and have allowed me to get to know and share with people of so many different backgrounds!

Answer 2

The country of your birth has no bearing on whether you are a native speaker. If, as an infant, a parent communicated to you completely in one language - say English - and if as a toddler you were exposed to that language on TV, with playmates and neighbors, and in your pre-school or kindergarten classes so that you were immersed in the language and interacted with numerous native speakers (so that you heard the minor variations in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar) you should be considered a native speaker of that language. The degree to which you were immersed in a language determines whether you are a native speaker.

But here is a fascinating fact - when adults learn a language, that language is found in a separate region of the brain. When children learn language, whether it is one, two, three, or four languages, they are ALL found in the same region of the brain. In other words, a child's brain learns all of the languages as if they were just one language. That is why people growing up in multi-lingual families or countries can shift in mid-sentence from one language to another without hesitation while a lot of adult learners must pause and translate from one language to another in their head.

Answer 3

I hold a different view of it. You learned English exactly as one who is a native of an English-speaking country, You don't have the proficiency you would have had if you had used both languages extensively. Where you learned your primary language is irrelevant, only which language you learned. Therefore I would consider you a native English speaker.

I don't have any experience with people in four-language regions, but there are a great number of people here (Texas, USA) who grew up speaking both English and Spanish. They are equally fluent in both languages and are indistinguishable from those who only speak one or the other. They can freely switch back and forth without missing a beat. To me, they could be considered a native speaker in both languages.

Answer 4

That's a fascinating question. Technically, the answer is, no, you would not be a native English speaker since you were not here as a baby. From a scientific standpoint, there is a demonstrated difference.

If, however, you make none of the mistakes that non-native speakers make, then the point is moot from a practical perspective.

Additionally, where there are more than four local languages, you will find that most people there are fluent in no language at all. You are almost certainly doing better than them.