So I was thinking about the topic of languages again and I started wondering again…
So I learned Cantonese as a kid, then learned Mandarin and the Chinese Writing system when I started school, in China. Then immigrated to the US, started learning English when I was still under age 10, which is according to wikipedia, still within the “critical period” of learning a language
There is much debate over the timing of the critical period with respect to second-language acquisition (SLA), with estimates ranging between 2 and 13 years of age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period_hypothesis
So then, I um… kinda forgot how to speak Mandarin, and most of Chinese written characters. Still kinda speak Cantonese because its for home. But barely know any words, so I can’t even express complex ideas like philosophy, science, politics. I never really spoke to anyone in Mandadin, and for Cantonese, its only at home.
But I never actually learned Cantonese or Mandarin beyond the basics. And for Mandarin the proficiency is even worse than Cantonese, I’ll have to think the words in Cantonese then convert it to Mandarin (its mostly the same written characters, but different pronunciation).
My English is so proficient, its really the only language I can effectively communicate in. And my classmates have told me they don’t notice any “accents” when I talk.
So which is my Native Language? “First” Language?
I mean… it’s kinda weird to call a language “native” if I could barely speak it.
A friend learned English from an Italian teacher, she had an Italian accent when speaking English. She doesn’t speak a single word of Italian or ever studied Italian. Pronunciation has nothing magical to it, and accents are very flexible. I can speak in almost any accent I want (thanks to linguistic training), but I tend to naturally and unconsciously gravitate towards the accent of the person I’m talking with. It makes others uncomfortable sometimes (those who have learned many languages and thus notice it), but most people don’t notice and think they actually like me because I talk like them. On my own, the most natural would be Austin, Texas English pronunciation. But it’s because of my heavy consumption of YouTube and Twitch content from that area during my teenage years, I’ve never been in the US. In Spanish I have like three or four different accents depending on the topic and context, code-switching is very common.
It’s the kind of thing that goes unnoticed when you don’t learn any new language or only speak a single second language. If you never interact with anyone who speak differently than you, then you don’t notice that the way you speak is not universal and you probably have a “heavy accent” in front of others who speak your same language.