<p>Can someone explain who would be considered a native English speaker? Would I be considered a native speaker or nonnative speaker if I, an international student, started attending in an English-speaking school starting from the first grade?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Bump (10 chars)</p>
<p>You are a native speaker in the language you speak best. Hardly anyone is native in more than one language. You can be fluent in more than one language, but being a native speaker is a whole other level. In my opinion.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think you would.</p>
<p>You are not a native-English speaker if this is not the language you first learned home. But if you ask it for the Toefl test, they will waive it to all that have studied for more than 4 years, if I remember well, where English is the primary teaching language.</p>
<p>If you have to ask, you are not a native speaker…</p>
<p>So, in conclusion, I am NOT a native speaker? I mean, English is the language I know best. And I’ve always attended in an English-speaking institution in all of my academic years starting from the first grade.</p>
<p>I think ur a considered an english native speaker if u have been raised in a place where the main language is English!</p>
<p>What’s your mother tongue? What language do you speak at home? If neither are English, you’re not a native speaker.</p>
<p>But if it’s about needing to take the TOEFL, most universities will spare you that waste of time and money if you received your education from an English speaking institution for more than 3 years (or something like that, I know 2 is not enough). This stuff is stated in the application instructions you know…</p>