How do you value your mother tongue?

[Hitro]

I think it's safe to say that a large group of posters here is at least bilingual and while some may have more than one language that could be considered their "mother tongue" most have learned a second or more later.

So how do you see your mother tongue in comparison with those languages? Is there no difference? Do you like better what you know better (or longer)? Or do you prefer a different language (maybe English) for reasons such as simplicity?

 

[oagersnap]

I still like Danish best, although I'm pretty good at German and English too.

 

[Perfection]

English > Spanish

 

[Dann]

I like them all. (Hokkien, Tagalog, English, Mandarin)

Very useful when you have separate circles of friends and relatives who are limited to only a particular language. Also allows you to badmouth someone in their face without them knowing it.

 

[classical_hero]

I like Australian the Best.

 

[Reno]

I like Finnish and German equally, English is good aswell but it's not at the same level as Finnish and German.

 

[punkbass2000]

I only really speak English, though I do enjoy my French and German non-sense :\

 

[Rambuchan]

English is my mother tongue. I speak, read and write it far better than any other. I also speak, read and write some Hindi and French, dependant on a need to do so. I used to be far more proficient in those two, together with some Italian, but sheer lack of usage and practice has left me a bit lame these days. It's actually quite tough having English as your first language. Whenever you go somewhere, trying to speak their language, you always end up speaking English. Having the world's business language as your mother tongue has its down side in this regard.

 

[Grisu]

I still prefer Swiss-German, followed by English, then regular German)

 

[Akka]

It's not a point of "liking it" or not.
French is my mothertongue, and the tongue of my country.
No amount of coolness from any other language can beat that. It's like a family thing.

 

[M37]

I think I'll always be better at English as opposed to French. I'm still terrible at French dispite having taken something like 9 years of it in school - its mandatory here in Canada.
I imagine that even if I do learn to speak French I'll still have someting of an accent.

Since English is not a threatened laguage I'm not worried about it disappearing anytime soon.

 

[superisis]

Depends on what I use the language for. In general I'm equally proficient in english and Swedish, but to me, Swedish is superior when when playing with the language (expression your self, making up new words, etc). Although most of my poetry is in English... go figure.

 

[luiz]

I don't really like Portuguese better than any other, but it is the only language I master in a satisfactory degree, and so I'll always use it when possible.

 

[Winner]

Well, the only language I know good is the Czech, so it is obvious I like it at best

Today I've translated a subtitles for an epizode of BSG series and I am starting to think our language isn't meant to be used for a sci-fi
I especially hate that US military slang, which is in fact untranslatable into Czech

 

[North King]

Other: I just cobble them all together into one long stream of communication. Usually using German for simple phrases (Ja, danke, bitte, etc.), French for a few words (because I don't know French nearly as well as anything else), and English. But English is definately the dominant one there (the other words *do* come out naturally, mind you, I just don't use them as often), so I'll have to say my mother tongue is my preferred method of communication.

 

[Tomoyo]

I'd hate to forget Cantonese, but I'm far more comfortable with English.

 

[Kayak]

English is my mother tongue. I speak, read and write it far better than any other. I also speak, read and write some Hindi and French, dependant on a need to do so. I used to be far more proficient in those two, together with some Italian, but sheer lack of usage and practice has left me a bit lame these days. It's actually quite tough having English as your first language. Whenever you go somewhere, trying to speak their language, you always end up speaking English. Having the world's business language as your mother tongue has its down side in this regard.

Thats the way it is with my German. You don't casualy run into many that speak it in the US. Now if I only learned Spanish instead!

 

[Jeff Yu]

My most fluent language is English, even though my mother tongue is Cantonese. I'd personally like to develop my Cantonese a lot better. I speak at native level and would fit right in in the streets of Hong Kong, but lacking advanced education, I wouldn't be able give a speech on subjects requiring advanced more advanced vocabulary (such as economics, politics, or science). I've all but given up on Latin, since the chances of using it as a spoken language nowadays is practically nil.

I guess I love Cantonese most and then English. I'm currently living in Singapore now, and surrounded by Chinese people everywhere, so I've been working on developing my Mandarin to a more advanced level. Still, speaking in Mandarin for me will never hold the intimacy or familiarity as Cantonese will. Once I've mastered that, I wouldn't mind trying to learn Hokkien as well.

 

[Mathilda]

Depends on what I use the language for. In general I'm equally proficient in english and Swedish, but to me, Swedish is superior when when playing with the language (expression your self, making up new words, etc). Although most of my poetry is in English... go figure.

Very similar to that.
My English is very close to being as good as my Finnish.
That playfulness with language is however what I do with Finnish all the time but very rarely with English.
I've been brought up in Finnish but speak English to my kids.
It's great, I never catch myself sounding like my mother

 

[Masquerouge]

I don't think I can like French better or less than other langages since I had no choice in the matter. And it set up my whole reference frame, so it's hard to objectively evaluate other languages.
That said, I am of the belief that every language with "declinaisons", I don't know the English word but it is the fact that the word is spelled differently depending on its place in the sentence, like Latin or German, is hugely archaic and inefficient
(just because I'm too lazy to learn and remember when to use what)