FORUM 2007
    ( From a Mensa Forum in World English )

    1a. How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?
    Posted by: Hartmut
    Date: Thu Jul 19, 2007

    Hello everybody,

    Yesterday, I read in an encyclopaedia that there are 850 million native speakers of Mandarin and 440 million native speakers of English, but 1.5 billion who speak English as a foreign language (Mandarin only a few thousand). So one can say that almost 2 billion persons or one third of the world's inhabitants can speak and understand English. According to another encyclopaedia, in 1980 72% of all scientific articles were written in English (in 1880 only 38% but also rank 1).

    I wonder, how I would feel, if one third of the world's population could speak and understand German? How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?

    I will tell you how you feel, if you are a non-native speaker : because of your limited vocabulary (I know about 4,000 English words) you can explain even complicated things only with simple words. Look e.g. at this page : http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_english

    A native German manager therefore said: "I always feel that the others take me for simple-minded because of my simple and poor English." You feel simple-minded, inferior and not accepted.

    There are a lot of "fine things" (German: "Feinheit", French: "finesse"), I don't understand and that creates the feeling in me of being kind of "excluded".

    Another thing already at school, was always to hear "this is wrong" or "this is a mistake", but hardly any praise or honour.

    I have about 100 books in English, a lot of them "Easy Reader"-books with a vocabulary up to 3,000 words, but also "original" books like Shakespeare's "King Lear" or "Hamlet". I want to read more of them to improve my English

    Yours faithfully,
    Hartmut

    1b. Re: How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?

    Hello Hartmut,

    You asked "How does it feel to be a native English speaker?".

    As a native English speaker, I am very aware of the rich vocabulary which I enjoy in English, as compared to many other languages. No doubt you know that English is a 'composite' (my word) and living language, developing under the influences of and borrowing from the different languages of conquerors of (all or part) of the British Isles throughout history, and more recently, from colonisation, trade, tourism, and increasingly effective global communications. In addition, I believe, some other modern languages (? French, Spanish, German ?) not only have a smaller vocabulary than English, but also are subject to some form of 'control' which impedes their growth.

    However, English is my only language and I wonder how many other native English speakers are in the same position - a position which I regard as 'blinkered' and, in fact, disadvantageous. Perhaps you have data on the number of English-only native English speakers ?

    Over many years, I have heard 'ordinary' Britons say that "There's no need to speak a foreign language - they understand English". Having lived in the USA for many years, I wonder to what extent membership of the European Union has encouraged the British (especially among the young) to learn other European languages (and also immigrant languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Pashto).

    I would never demean the English vocabulary of any non-native English speaker - quite the opposite, since I have not gone to the trouble of learning their or any other, language.

    Best regards,
    Peter
    1c. Re: How does it feel to be a native speaker of English? Posted by: Hartmut Date: Thu Jul 19, 2007

    >Hello Hartmut,

    >You asked "How does it feel to be a native English speaker?".

    >As a native English speaker, I am very aware of the rich vocabulary which I enjoy in English, as compared to many other languages.

    Hello Peter,

    The German vocabulary is not so rich, but we have so many combinations like "Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum", that we can almost equalize the English vocabulary with these combinations.

    >In addition, I believe, some other modern languages (? French, Spanish, German ?) not only have a smaller vocabulary than English, but also are subject to some form of 'control' which impedes their growth.

    In France, there is a very strong control of the French language to keep it "pure". The German language is absorbing a lot of new expressions and even inventing own "English" words, like "Handy" (mobile phone), "Showmaster" (MC, conferencier) or "Smoking" (dinner jacket / tuxedo). This is called "German English" or "Denglisch".

    >>However, English is my only language and I wonder how many other native English speakers are in the same position - a position which I regard as 'blinkered' and, in fact, disadvantageous. Perhaps you have data on the number of English-only native English speakers ?

    Here I have some data: Europeans' answers to the question: which other language do you speak? 
      1.. English: 41 %
  2.. French: 19 %
  3.. German: 10 %
  4.. Spanish: 7 %
  5.. Italian: 3 %
  6.. Schwedish: 1 %
  7.. Netherlandic: 1 %
English as lingua franca
English is understood by 80 % of the people in Sweden, Denmark and the
Netherlands, by 70 % of the people in Luxemburg, by 60 % of the Finns and
half of the Germans and Austrians.

Share of the one-language people
47 % only speak their mother tongue, i. e.:

  1.. 2 % in Luxemburg
  2.. 13 % in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands
  3.. one third in Finnland, Belgium
  4.. 66 % in the United Kingdom
  5.. 40 - 50 % in the other European countries
Source: Eurobarometer, 28th of Nov 2005
    >Best regards,
    >Peter

    Yours faithfully,
    Hartmut

    1d. Re: How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?
    Posted by: Steve
    Date: Thu Jul 19, 2007
    On 7/19/07, Hartmut wrote:

    > How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?

    The good news is that the breadth and complexity of the language are so vast that mastery is not trivial, and the potential for enjoyment is virtually unlimited. The bad news is that adopting another language as primary, would be giving up a lot of what interests and amuses me during the course of an ordinary day.

    I have found in my travels that I can communicate pretty well with non-English speakers, knowing precious few words in their language, by gesturing, associating words with common origins, incorporating various props etc., and being friendly enough to encourage their cooperation. I have developed a sense that improving my skills in their language would never begin to get me close to the level at which I communicate and comprehend in English, and so I don't try. Seems to me as though I appear to be arrogant, but it's founded in hopelessness.

    I might well be a European resident were it not for this limitation.
    --
    Steve
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    1e. Re: How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?
    Posted by: Peter
    Date: Thu Jul 19, 2007

    > I wonder, how I would feel, if one third of the world's population could speak and understand German? How does it feel to be a native speaker of English?

    VERY lucky, Hartmut! And also very respectful of the many other languages the peoples of the world have developed and used.

    In school I studied only French (1943-1946), Latin (1944-1947), and German (1946-1948). And as a result of these studies, I found myself able to limp along in Paris during August 1955 and a bit in Frankfurt-am-Main in September. But on each of those two occasions I felt very limited in what I could express.

    And in recent years I have had the chance to read and write email at a very elementary level with current French and German friends living in their homelands.

    But I was vastly impressed with an age-mate and friend, Gian-Carlo Rota, the mathematician, who grew up in Milan, moved with his family to Quito, Ecuador, and by age 18 had moved to USA, where he lived his entire later life. He was fluent in six European languages, and he mentioned to me once that he found he was unable to express certain concepts in French that he could rather easily say in the other five. I envied him his capacities.

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