Thread by @vakibs

I used to say the same, “Oh, I am actually more fluent in English than in my mother tongue.” I realized the stupidity of this statement very very late. Many of the Indo-Anglian caste will probably realize this never.

https://twitter.com/amritanshu_soa/status/1412756119001305091

Once, an American friend of mine, who was working as an English teaching assistant at a French school, prepared a list of complex vocabulary as a teaching prop. She tried the list on me and was stunned to see I knew the meanings of all of them, which she as native speaker didn’t.

But the thing is this: English is her mother tongue. It will never be mine. There are cases where the native use of a grammatical form, word inflection, or intuitive agility in coining a new word will show. I have this in Telugu, and will not have it in English beyond a degree.

Another differentiating factor is the flexibility with which a native speaker understands a related neighboring language. My British friend had an intuitive sense for German/Dutch words, which I didn’t (I didn’t know German then). There are deep roots for language in the brain.