native vs. native speaker
– B1-C1 (intermediate to advanced) –
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In many variants of English, the words “native” and “native speaker” can be synonyms. In Canadian English, however, these terms are not generally synonyms; they do not mean the same thing. So, when someone says that they want to sound like “a native,” this often sounds strange in the Canadian context. This is why:
NATIVE
In Canadian English, this word typically means:
(noun) an Indigenous person (e.g., Cree, Inuit, Métis, Mayan, Quechua, Tupi, Guaraní, etc.)
NOTE
Compared to other English-speaking countries around the world, public conversation regarding Indigenous affairs is much more common in Canada. Whether it is in reference to representation, identity, language, culture, discrimination, history, law, equity, social progress, or even holidays, Canadian culture and society frequently discusses and teaches on these topics as they relate to Indigenous communities in Canada. This is one reason why the noun, “native,” is typically understood by a Canadian to mean an Indigenous person.
That being said, however, in Canada the word “native” to refer to an Indigenous person is generally considered old-fashioned and often disrespectful due to a complex history connected to the use of this word in the country. You can learn more about it here.
NATIVE SPEAKER
In Canadian English, this term typically means:
(noun) a person who is taught to speak a particular language (or languages) from infancy
NOTE
Generally in Anglo-Canada, a “native speaker” is not just a person who is fluent in a language, or even a person who started learning a language as a child before or during elementary school. A “native speaker” is a person who speaks a language(s) that they were taught by their parents or guardians while they were a baby (i.e., ages 0 to 2); this person continues to speak this language(s) as they grow up.
It should also be noted that, in Anglo-Canada, “native speaker” is not a level of language knowledge, or a label that indicates how good or how fluent you are in a language. Many people who learned to speak English fluently as their second or third language (etc.) speak it better and have more knowledge of the English language than most native speakers of English. The term, “native speaker,” simply describes what language(s) a person learned from infancy. This means that if you started to learn Spanish, for example, as a baby, and continued to learn it and speak it as you grew up, and then you started learning English later in life, you are not a native speaker of English and you will never be one. But that is okay. Being a “native speaker” of English is not an indication of your skill. It is an indication of where you were born or what language(s) you have used since before the age of 2.
EXAMPLES
“I love learning languages! I am currently learning Portuguese, but it can be so hard to sound like a native.”
“To sound like a native? What do you mean?”
“You know, to sound fluent, like a local. Like I’m not a foreigner.”
“Oh! I thought you were wanting to have the accent of an Indigenous person. I was thinking, ‘That’s strangely specific, and yet not...’ I started to wonder what Indigenous people group you were wanting to sound like….’”
“She is a native speaker of Japanese and Mandarin. She learned both of them from birth; her mom taught her Japanese and her dad taught her Mandarin. When she turned three years old, she went to an English-speaking daycare, where she learned to speak English. So, Japanese and Mandarin are her native languages and English is her second language.”
What are you a native speaker of? What other languages do you know how to speak? Are you fluent in them? Practice your English by sharing your responses with me in the comments below.
