What is a first language?

I gave just applied for a school place for Ben, who will be starting Y2 this autumn. On the form I had to inform the school what his first language is. On the list of criteria for acceptance “English as a first language” is right at the top. Now, the people at the school already know my son, as he is currently a pupil in Y1, and last year he was in Reception Class. In Norway children start school when they’re 6, and so the first two years are counted as nursery school, which is why we have to apply again. In year 1 there are approx. 40 children, and only 20 will go on to Y2. The more I can do to raise our chances, the better. We are already favoured, in theory, because Ben has siblings in school. Christi will start Y9 next autumn, and Nic will start Y6. Still, I’m not sure how many of the children now in Y1 count English as their first language… To cut a long story short, I ended up writing that Ben’s first language (at least chronologically) is Norwegian, but informed them that I speak English with him at home and that he is comfortable with the language.

It’s the mention of the level of comfort, something I just happened to add on, perhaps to let them know I’m not making him speak English against his will, which made me ponder the question in the title of my post. I’m currently sat trying to write an assignment for my history class. It has to be in Norwegian, or at least I suppose they expect it to be in Norwegian. My problem now is that I am nowhere near as comfortable writing in Norwegian as I am writing in English, especially not when it comes to the subject of history or education. This has a very reasonable explanation. Almost from the day I started studying history (and English) my working language has been partly English, and this part grew by the year. The textbooks, with few exceptions, were in English, which meant that my growing subject vocabulary invariably ended up being mainly English. When I started to write my Master’s thesis I struggled for months to get anything done. Working in Norwegian was awkward. I could never find the words I needed. Only when I decided to write the thesis in English did I manage to make some headway and put my thoughts, findings and analyses down on paper. It makes me think that while Norwegian is certainly my first spoken language, English is now my first written language. Of course we all know that with languages the rule is “use it or lose it”!

I’m not sure where I’m going with this. It just made me think. Something I do in English while writing, and to a large extent also while just thinking, because I like to think in words, if you know what I mean. When people talk to me I often see the words in my head, typed out, so to speak. This even happens when I listen to Spanish, even though I don’t know the spelling. My brain guesses at the spelling, and with a phonetic language like Spanish my brain is often right :-)

Code switch of the day:

“I dag ska æ stå opp og lag breakfast på sænga te æ!” ~Ben (waking up on Mother’s Day… He also used the word ”te-spoon”. LOL )

Spanish victory of the week:

Christiania coming into my room to tell me that she can understand a bit of Spanish tweets. Which words? No entiendo, café and tostada :-) - She also asked me how to say “you are” and practiced saying “tu eres mi madre/padre”.
– Kind of a big victory this week, as she not only understood words but came asking to learn more!

(As for my Spanish, it’s not been as good. I read the chapters in my book for Friday’s lecture, but then missed the lecture as I had to work, and I also had to cancel to Skype chats with Ana due to work and school :P )