Language competence. Widening, or getting behind, the labels.

[Molly]

If you had to describe your English language competence in more than the regular ways, e.g. native-speaker, nonnative-speaker, advanced/intermediate/beginner level speaker, etc. how would you do it?

Here's one way Adrian Holliday of Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, might see himself being described:

"rather than being classified as a ‘native speaker’ of English, someone like me would be considered a ‘relatively, though by no means always, competent user’ of something which might be defined along the lines of a conglomerate of Englishmiddle class, + academic, + institutional, + international, with specialized cultural reference connected with applied linguistics, a particular biography as a past curriculum consultant in the ‘developing world’ and with long-standing social, familial and emotional contacts with the Middle East – and so on."
PDF file

[Ralf]

[Molly]

Thanks for that humorous observation, Ralf. What's your reply to this part of my post?

[Ralf]

[Molly]

[Ralf]

[Molly]

[Ralf]

[MrPedantic]

[Molly]

[Molly]

The thread question is:

[MrPedantic]

Well, M., in terms of vocabulary, grammar, phrasing, idiom, spelling, punctuation, and of course allusion (or perhaps that should be "hinterland"), I would say that your style of English and mine are quite similar. From which I infer that you and I probably have quite similar backgrounds.

So in answer to your question:

[Molly]

[Molly]

Hey, Ralf, do you feel that being born in Germany has influenced, or influences, any part of your English usage in any way?

[Ralf]