https://languageonthemove.com/the-native-speaker-concept/ Multilingualism, Intercultural communication, Consumerism, Globalization, Gender & Identity, Migration & Social Justice, Language & Tourism Tue, 15 Dec 2015 08:50:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://languageonthemove.com/the-native-speaker-concept/#comment-46636 Tue, 15 Dec 2015 08:50:43 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=18614#comment-46636 […] Lauren Wagner, The native speaker concept […]

]]> https://languageonthemove.com/the-native-speaker-concept/#comment-46011 Wed, 15 Apr 2015 14:53:21 +0000 http://www.languageonthemove.com/?p=18614#comment-46011 Indeed a problematic category. Here’s my story: I grew up in Hong Kong (spending 17 years there from age 3). Although I lived in other places for almost 20 years now, I’d still call my Cantonese native – meaning no HK person could spot that I am not one of them. Once I translated some marketing material (from German to Traditional Chinese) and the very professional reviser commented that the translation was most likely done by a Mainland Chinese and not a HK local. The HR of the translation agency questioned my credential, and I was totally shocked… and explained I had my kindergarten, primary, secondary education and even a M.A. done in HK. How was that possible? But no doubt, people’s migration experience influence their “native language” tremendously. Now think about cases in Singapore, where I live now, when local people (who were born here) fill in a language questionnaire, no one would put the top score (native score) for any of the multiple languages that they speak (English/Singlish, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and other Chinese/Indian languages) because they simply use a mixture on a daily basis – they feel inappropriate to claim English as their native showing awareness of their proficiency different from a Brit/American/Aussie. So this goes back to what Prof. Piller mentioned in another article ‘linguistic theory in Dubai’ about the impression of language being ‘discrete’.

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