Do you find your mother language easier than your second?

[Thrix]

Pretty simple question. My mother language is Croatian, and my second is English. And I'm not sure what to think. I can communicate on both fairly well, but I suck with grammar (as in school for example).

But that's probably because I hate grammar (defining, nondefining, adjectives, nouns, blah, blah), and that's mostly because of my boring school teachers.

What about you?

[thekernel]

Absolutely. My mother tongue is natural and free-flowing. I can communicate without much trouble. With a second language, I've had to learn the rules from scratch instead of having them imbued within me since birth. I've had to access memory from my brain to complete thoughts, which I have almost never needed to do with English.

[MyDigitalpoint]

I believe one's mother tongue will always be easier than the second one because is your own language. No matter how hard are the grammar rules or whatever make it complex to you because there is always the chance to comprehend when someone has the patience to explain you or you try to improve your own language seeking how to cope with your grammar problems.

With a second language, you need to understand the basics first to figure out what the explanation of grammar should be applied.

Rules for one language or another could be easier. In example, perhaps Croatian is complex if compared with English, but if you are not proficient in English, you won't understand someone explaining you English grammar rules, while you can understand someone speaking your native tongue, despite you cannot memorize such rules or suck at them.

[Humbleman]

Pretty simple question. My mother language is Croatian, and my second is English. And I'm not sure what to think. I can communicate on both fairly well, but I suck with grammar (as in school for example).

But that's probably because I hate grammar (defining, nondefining, adjectives, nouns, blah, blah), and that's mostly because of my boring school teachers.

What about you?

You sound pretty decent with your English language usage.  :wink:I think I am better at speaking my native patois, but by choice I always address people in English (sometimes without even realizing it). It can be bad sometimes, as some of my native folks can readily tell that I am naive to the fact that the conversation started in patois and should continue so. lol

[charahome]

I can communicate fluently in both languages, English and Spanish. However, my grammar is better in English. Odd enough as that is my second language.

I am not bad at Spanish grammar, but i get mixed up with word order, for adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.

[diprod]

My mother tongue is Tagalog and my second language is English. And it's a bit weird that I find my mother tongue a bit harder to learn than English. I learned to speak Tagalog when I was 6 because I was raised as English being my first language.

[calticitron]

My first language is English, but my mother tongue is Filipino, and it is personally more difficult for me to speak my mother tongue because we grew up speaking English. Hopefully, it would be easier for me since I have been practicing and reading texts in Filipino. I definitely want to be fluent in my mother tongue.

[martee100]

I really lack in grammar in what ever languages I have learned and speak. It is not that I ignore all the grammar rules while speaking or writing but rather I do not give them much importance and you will see me making a mistake here and there.

[sidney]

Well in a way yeah, because I can speak directly in my mother language as compared to speaking in English, which is my foreign language, because even if I'm fluent in it, I sort of process what I'm about to say in my brain first before I say it to make sure there are no grammatical errors as compared to Tagalog where I speak "mindlessly".

[Denis Hard]

It's hard to answer this question. Do I even have a second language? I speak three languages fluently [because the neighborhood I lived in as a kid was populated by three different nationalities the kids got to learn all three languages] but I guess I'm better at English [which is my mother tongue] though I can speak the two other languages equally well.

[Banister]

It is quite unfortunate to mention that I find my second language (English) easier to speak and write than my first language (Kisw). I haven’t understood the reason but most probably it is just because since a child I have studied in schools where everything goes on English. The exams, conversations with both teachers and students besides the fact that English was the only language permitted in such schools are English.

[lizbeth19hph]

I use my second language, English more in both my teaching and writing jobs than my first language. But when it comes to conversations, I use a mixture of my first and second language. I admitted before that I am more adept using English when ever I write essays and compose poetry for there are some words in my native language that I still don't know for they have deeper meanings.

[deutschefun]

Pretty simple question. My mother language is Croatian, and my second is English. And I'm not sure what to think. I can communicate on both fairly well, but I suck with grammar (as in school for example).

But that's probably because I hate grammar (defining, nondefining, adjectives, nouns, blah, blah), and that's mostly because of my boring school teachers.

What about you?

The reason your grammar is so good in Croatian is that is the language you have grown up surrounded by. If you immerse yourself completely in a language you will find that grammar becomes habitual, rather than a tedious concentration exercise. Imagine learning Arabian, which has 16 cases! And one thing I always tell my students is that grammar is secondary, communication is king. It's more important to be understood than to be grammatically perfect!

[Luke18]

My mother language is English and I definitely find it easier than Gujarati which is my second language.  Much of this has to do with the fact that I live in the United States and thus speak English with all of my friends, while I only speak Gujarati with the elderly members of my family.

[Trellum]

Well, in general I'd say english is way easier to learn than spanish.  Sometimes even  the native spanish speakers have huge issues trying to use spanish properly.  This is actually very common among young people, they are destroying the spanish language.  The don't use grammar properly and their spelling is just horrible!  I blame the educational system of my country mostly, that and the parents of those youngsters.

English is way easier   Hence is considered an international language... spanish isn't for everyone.  The hardest part is with no doubt the conjugation of the verbs... we have some really weird tenses...

[Lin]

Pretty simple question. My mother language is Croatian, and my second is English. And I'm not sure what to think. I can communicate on both fairly well, but I suck with grammar (as in school for example).

But that's probably because I hate grammar (defining, nondefining, adjectives, nouns, blah, blah), and that's mostly because of my boring school teachers.

What about you?

I speak English as a native language, even though it really isn't; but my country tries to incorporate it as one in the school curriculum. I find that I grasp it easier than the Spanish I am currently studying; but this can only be due to the fact that I see and hear it around me everyday. I was taught that Spanish is a more simplistic language however, and I find that it isn't hard to grasp either.

[True2marie]

:amazed: I would think one's native language should be easier to speak than a foreign one.  My only assumption is that the foreign language would be spoken more properly. Why? Usually, the proper manner in which a language should be spoken is taught in foreign language classes. It usually differs on the street.

[andre-nunes]

From an objective standpoint I can tell that my mother language (Portuguese from Portugal) can be harder to learn than English, there's just so many concepts and complications about it, like gender for objects with no "logical" explanation to why an object is female or male. English looks like a failry straightfoward language, at least I found it very easy to learn but it depends from person to person due to background and cultural factors.

[Firelily99]

I don't have to think about speaking, writing or reading English but in Spanish its a whole different story.  I am not even close to speaking Spanish fluently and I am still translating it in my mind before I say something.  My English might not be the best but its a lot better than my Spanish!

[Rosa]

In my opinion, ones mother tongue will always be easier than their second language,unless maybe they are away from speaking it for a very long time. It is much easier for me with my mother tongue than with my second language. I am encircled by people who speak it just as fluent as I can so I do not baffle at any time. It is quite the opposite with Spanish because I don't have a lot of people to communicate with so I don't speak it that often.

[g2narat]

Yes. But that may be because my mother tongue is Filipino and Filipino grammar is way easier than other languages that I've had to learn. The spelling is also much easier because you spell things the way they sound. French used to be my second language as a child as we lived in France for quite sometime. French used to be easy for me (Not as easy as Filipino but I was quite fluent when I was younger) but now that I'm used to English, I'm finding it hard to re-learn the French language.

[Denis Hard]

Most kids simply pick up their mother tongue [sometimes] without being taught. You just speak to the kid, ignore him/her altogether while you converse but heck the little tyke is absorbing that language and if you used some cuss words you'll be surprised to hear them said in front of guests [embarrassing you].  So, regardless of whether the language is difficult or not, before the kids even realize it's hard, they'd have learned it [at age 4, a kid is fluent in their mother tongue]. Would it be therefore be classified as harder than a second language they learn considering they didn't expend much energy trying to learn the language?

I don't think so. Second languages will always be more difficult to learn.

[Peninha]

I think every person finds their native language easier than any other because we were born with it, we learned it in a natural way, so it offers no difficulty to us. A language that we don't speak daily is of course more "difficult" as we're not familiar with it.

[justusforus]

Once I consider myself "proficient" I will tell you they are equally "easy".  Perhaps just due to familiarity and length of time, I would feel more confident, say in a debate, to do so in my native tongue.

[fredkawig]

All the Languages that I know, I mastered it at least that's what I think. With the exception for Ifontok since I never grew up in Bontoc, I grew up in Baguio. Filipino terms are also one of my weakness, I find English my second language easier to go with rather than our National language which is Filipino.