When does English become your first language?

Moomat

Would English be considered your first language if you were born in a non-English speaking country but moved here as a young adult, have Irish citizenship and use English 98% of the time?

My question is in connection with educational or professional applications that ask whether English is your first language.

jimmii

I guess typically it has meant that is your native language or the first language you learnt but I think if it was your strongest language and you were fluent in it then calling it your first language is perfectly acceptable. So in your example I would say yes.

Moomat

jimmii wrote: »

I guess typically it has meant that is your native language or the first language you learnt but I think if it was your strongest language and you were fluent in it then calling it your first language is perfectly acceptable. So in your example I would say yes.

That is my view on it too. I haven't been able to find an exact definition so it creates a grey area in the applications I suggested.
The only definitive way would be a test but would that not be discriminating against an Irish citizen who was not born here versus a citizen who was? Sorry for the hypothetical questions but it's an issue that may arise in the near future and I'm trying to consider the different angles.

jimmii

Moomat wrote: »

That is my view on it too. I haven't been able to find an exact definition so it creates a grey area in the applications I suggested.
The only definitive way would be a test but would that not be discriminating against an Irish citizen who was not born here versus a citizen who was? Sorry for the hypothetical questions but it's an issue that may arise in the near future and I'm trying to consider the different angles.

I think its going to be apparent quite quickly whether or not someone is a competent speaker. I don't think there is going to be a definitive definition unfortunately as it is something that is down to opinion. Its unlikely to be the most important part of the application so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

tac foley

My undertanding is that the use of the term 'first language' implies the one that you use most of all of any that you speak, not the first one that you learnt to speak.

I was brought up in a multi-lingual household, but English was always the language I used most, so that when asked, I state that English is my primary language.

tac

davwain

jimmii wrote: »

I guess typically it has meant that is your native language or the first language you learnt but I think if it was your strongest language and you were fluent in it then calling it your first language is perfectly acceptable. So in your example I would say yes.

I would agree, in this case. Of course, there are people who are fluent in English but who nonetheless speak a different language as their mother tongue. Regardless of whether English is someone's 1st language or he or she learned it as a 2nd or later language, it helps, in many cases, to have fluency in English. I would say this is useful for obtaining citizenship of any of:
- Canada (for anyone lacking fluency in French)
- Ireland
- UK
- US
- Australia
- NZ
- South Africa

tac foley

davwain wrote: »

I would say this is useful for obtaining citizenship of any of:
- Canada (for anyone lacking fluency in French)

Basically agree. For a non-Francophone to try and settle in Québec or New Brunswick it would be an almost insurmountable problem. However, unless you have a government-tied occupation and have to deal with Francophones on a daily basis as part of that job, it's not much of a problem in the rest of Canada. I am the only French-speaker in our extended family, although everybody else learnt French at school. I lived with my grandparents as a young child, and my g'mother was a French-speaker.

Much later on, as the Chief Instructor of a military training establishment, being a French speaker was very useful for dealing with recalcitrant military students whose English had suddenly 'disappeared' on arrival there. The 'interview without coffee', entirely mono-directional and in French of the kind understood by most Québecers, was all that was needed to persuade them to recall just how much English they really DID know.

tac

PS - just for a giggle, see how many words of French origin you can identify in this post, and see just how difficult it would be to write just about anything without using it/them.

MathsManiac

If it's the language that you think in, that'd be a pretty good indicator.