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What does 'speaking a language as one's native language' mean?

Should learning a language as a second language at school be considered as speaking that language as one's native language?

Jul 26, 2015 5:43 PM
Comments · 2
1

If that person interacts a lot with native speakers or lives in an immersive environment and has absorbed the way the natives speak and think, maybe. 

It is vary rare, though. Foreign speakers can usually learn the language very well but they can't process all the cultural information the natives have. Therefore, they can't  possess the same linguistic arsenal.

July 26, 2015

I think it can, Camilo. In Indonesia everyone learns Indonesian in school in addition to the island language (the first language learned) from around 4-5 years old because it's the law. Since Indonesian's used in every form of media (government, national, and entertainment) and it's the required means of communication in schools, the great majority of Indonesians are native/fluent in Indonesian by the time they're teens.

 

So it's rare except in countries with unifying languages.

July 30, 2015