Native Language

[freezeframe]

When you create a forum profile here, there's a required choice of Native Language from a drop-down menu. You can choose only one and you cannot qualify it.

Usually when people ask me "What is your native language?" I pause and then go with an option that seems least problematic in the situation or with whatever I feel like that day. I don't have just one native language -- my "first" language was acquired simultaneously with another. These languages were used equally around me.

And my native language is different depending on how you define what makes the language "native". Is it the first language you acquired? Is it the language that is dominant for me? Is it the language in which you have native fluency? Is it the language that defines my sociolinguistic identity (internal and external)? If I go with some of these definitions, my native language is English.

Sometimes when I think about what is "my native language" I feel a bit of cognitive dissonance, part of which is the feeling of liminality and also of loss. I'm sure this is a common migrant experience.

I'm curious if anyone else has had any similar experiences and if they'd like to share.

cheers

[5jj]

I feel a bit of cognitive dissonance, part of which is the feeling of liminality and also of loss.

Nah, mate - you ain't a native speaker. Not if you talks like that.

[freezeframe]

Nah, mate - you ain't a native speaker. Not if you talks like that.

Well, fivejedjon, here in Canada the word liminality is quite common and is often heard in places like supermarket checkout lines. Don't be a hater just because people in the colonies have better vocabulary.

[5jj]

Well, fivejedjon, here in Canada the word liminality is quite common and is often heard in places like supermarket checkout lines. Don't be a hater just because people in the colonies have better vocabulary.

Look, mate - we behaves ourselves in supermarket Q's, and we don't use badder language, even if we does hafter Q for ages.

[Hucky]

When you create a forum profile here, there's a required choice of Native Language from a drop-down menu. You can choose only one and you cannot qualify it.

Usually when people ask me "What is your native language?" I pause and then go with an option that seems least problematic in the situation or with whatever I feel like that day. I don't have just one native language -- my "first" language was acquired simultaneously with another. These languages were used equally around me.

And my native language is different depending on how you define what makes the language "native". Is it the first language you acquired? Is it the language that is dominant for me? Is it the language in which you have native fluency? Is it the language that defines my sociolinguistic identity (internal and external)? If I go with some of these definitions, my native language is English.

Sometimes when I think about what is "my native language" I feel a bit of cognitive dissonance, part of which is the feeling of liminality and also of loss. I'm sure this is a common migrant experience.

I'm curious if anyone else has had any similar experiences and if they'd like to share.

cheers

I didn´t know that you had opened this thread prior to my last contribution to my thread "no staff for the has-beens", otherwise I would have dropped it here. As you ask for someone with a similar experience, I have to refer you to a lady quoted there. - I promise you striking similarities!

[5jj]

I didn´t know that you had opened this thread prior to my last contribution to my thread "no staff for the has-beens", otherwise I would have dropped it here. As you ask for someone with a similar experience, I have to refer you to a lady quoted there. - I promise you striking similarities!

@ freezeframe:

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.

[birdeen's call]

I think it would be a good idea to bring the problem to Red5's attention on the support forum.

[Hucky]

I think it would be a good idea to bring the problem to Red5's attention on the support forum.

I feel there is too much crypticness here. Please, let's be nice to one another. Hucky, if there's something on your mind, why not say it openly? It would cause less tension.

Sorry if nothing like that is going on and I'm meddling unnecessarily.

Dear birdeen´s call,

Just in brief, you are not meddling, whatsoever, if you are trying to help in good intent. The object of your appeal should be a matter of course, but it is worth calling it to mind again. At the time when you wrote these lines the matter must have seemed cryptic to you. Meanwhile, you will have got the necessary background information by reading the pertinent passages, thus connecting the dots.

Hucky

[birdeen's call]

Please note that I never said I didn't understand what you'd been saying. I just didn't like the way you'd said that. I think that a simple

Hey, freezeframe, I noticed that the "native language" entry in your profile had changed. How is this possible?

would be more polite. I think it's better to say things explicitly, when it comes to personal matters. This way we have a better chance of avoiding conficts.

[Tdol]

When you create a forum profile here, there's a required choice of Native Language from a drop-down menu. You can choose only one and you cannot qualify it.

There is a problem with a single choice list- I am afraid the software is inflexible and doesn't offer the possibility to give more than one option. We used to have a box that people could write in, but the results were a mess, but at least this way, we get one language chosen that is spelt consistently, and no one claims to be a native speaker of asdf or a web address.