Do you and your SO speak the same native language?

[Butterfly]

Yep. We both grew up in America.. Both speak English. Boring, I know

Although we do both know bits of Spanish and Italian and we will occasionally say things to one another in those languages.

[ms_angel]

My native language is Tagalog. We're both from the Philippines and we're both Filipinos. But I'm residing here in Montreal, Canada.

[Dziubka]

My native language is German, my boyfriend's is Polish.
We communicate in Polish as I'm quite fluent (majoring in Slavistics) and my boyfriend doesn't really know any foreign languages. Although lately he has been taking additional German classes and is making great progress so we can already have some small talk in German

[luna_banana]

We're both from the US, so we both speak English :P

However, I've been studying Mandarin for about 4 years and plan on it being my major in college...so somewhere along the road I will probably pester him into learning it too

[PurpleDreamer]

Well I am 'fluent' in two languages: Bad English and worser English LOL. In truth I am from the UK (central UK at that) and my wife is a Texan. I will often use words or slang that my wife will just look at me and go "say what?". But then sometimes she will say something and I will just look at her and say "Yeah, OK what ever you said deary" LOL

Even though we both technically speak the same language, slang words, rhythm, pitch and even pronunciations can just cause hilarity sometimes. Best example I can think of is the word "Squirrel". I pronounce it so differently that my wife and her family just fall about laughing at me. *shrugs*

It's the same for my SO and I. We both speak English as our first language but he is from the USA and I am Australian. When we have children someday they will grow up somewhat confused, haha :P.

[MeeshaLenee]

Well I am 'fluent' in two languages: Bad English and worser English LOL. In truth I am from the UK (central UK at that) and my wife is a Texan. I will often use words or slang that my wife will just look at me and go "say what?". But then sometimes she will say something and I will just look at her and say "Yeah, OK what ever you said deary" LOL

Even though we both technically speak the same language, slang words, rhythm, pitch and even pronunciations can just cause hilarity sometimes. Best example I can think of is the word "Squirrel". I pronounce it so differently that my wife and her family just fall about laughing at me. *shrugs*

It's the same for my SO and me. I'm from the US, and he's from England, and I am FASCINATED by his accent.... We do have to explain colloquialisms and slang to each other sometimes, though we've been friends for roughly a year and a half now, so we've had time to get used to the differences between the two versions of the same language. It always keeps things interesting, though.

Sometimes the differences in how we speak can cause difficulties. When we're skyping, it's usually okay because I can KIND of read his lips, though they're kind of blurry, but over the phone I have an especially hard time with it. I already struggle with phone conversations because I guess I just stink at catching what people say, so the accent makes things a tad more difficult. I'll have to think for a bit before the lightbulb goes on and I get what he said.
I'm getting better, though, which is fantastic.


Another question for everyone: Do you ever find yourself starting to pick up phrases and speech mannerisms used by your SO?
I've found I sometimes speak more like my SO than like a born and bred American, albeit without the accent. I guess it comes from spending so much time talking with him, I can't help but start talking like him, too.

[FadedSunrise]

Another question for everyone: Do you ever find yourself starting to pick up phrases and speech mannerisms used by your SO?
I've found I sometimes speak more like my SO than like a born and bred American, albeit without the accent. I guess it comes from spending so much time talking with him, I can't help but start talking like him, too.

This happens to me easily. I spent so much time around my best friend and SO during Beijing that I've started picking up pronounciation habits from both of them.

[milaya]

Another question for everyone: Do you ever find yourself starting to pick up phrases and speech mannerisms used by your SO?

Ah yes! My SO and I noticed when he was here in November. That there's a lot phrases and certain words I've started to use without thinking where they came from. Then he started to notice...
"hey didn't you get that from me?"
"What? isn't it just regular Japanese?"
"No, it's something I use a lot."
- And that happened a lot. I've in general started speaking just like him, without noticing it. Only he did.

In general I soak up everything Japanese like a sponge. (I speak Japanese pretty well... all by watching Japanese TV dramas for 2 years where I remembered the words I heard). So I'm kinda glad my SO speaks standard Japanese. Even though he is from the country side, but because of his job he was forced to put aside his dialect. If he still used his dialect... well then I would be speaking fluent Miyazaki-dialect and my Japanese university teacher wouldn't understand a word XD

[lucybelle]

Another question for everyone: Do you ever find yourself starting to pick up phrases and speech mannerisms used by your SO?

YES! Most of the time it's me not being able to come up with the English version of a word. It happens a lot with the word "compartir" which means "to share". I'll say "yeah you guys can just compartir... umm... I mean share!" I don't know why!

Also, I translate more commonly used phrases in Spanish into English. Like they use "mas o menos" all the time, which means "more or less". Sure it's a phrase here, but we don't use it that often. I use it ALLLLLL the time now!

[Darth_Taco]

My first language is Spanish, his is English :P. You'd think being born in the United States would put you in a position of learning English along with your native language, but you are so wrong in my case xD. I'm from a ridiculously small town in Northern California. So small, I had to travel to another town to be born in a hospital :P. There were none in the town when I was born. I'm only 20-years-old, I should not be saying that sentence! D: Anyway, it's an epically Mexican town. When I lived there, most of the residents were illegal immigrants xD. I was one of the few natural born citizens :P. Because of so many kids that didn't speak English, it was just easier to have all Spanish-speaking classes, and special classes for English-speakers. I moved to Vegas when I was 7, that's when I finally started learning to speak English. I was finally fluent at 10, but couldn't speak like a normal person until I was like 15 xD. I write and read so much better than I speak English. Still can't pronounce some of the words I write down (or in this case, type). You people are all lucky you don't speak to me and just read what I say :P. My accent isn't thick, just confusing xD.

Enrique's story is much simpler, his parents are from Mexico, but they didn't teach him English. They didn't feel it necessary living in the US. It's now 2011 and impossible to get a job in California without Spanish xD. Poor Enrique ;_;. Thankfully he has a job :P. Oddly enough, he lives with his grandma who doesn't speak English :P. Thankfully I now live here to translate :'D! Still teaching him Spanish so he can communicate with my mom better :P.

[uniquefem]

Hehehe when i said "nite nite" to my SO he laugh and said he like that sound... ever since he will say "nite nite" when we closing our chat at night. But sometimes when he say it, it seemed like he said that to a 5 yo! (e.g "ok, its time for you to go to bed and say nite nite..") hahaha.. i have to be at office at 6am, but i just can't stop talking with him! so most of time he had to remind me that it was very late to sleep!

[Niecey]

Yes....

[snow_girl]

We both speak english but we met in Germany. Since my german was far better then his I was always the one ordering food or asking the questions.

[Petersgirl]

His first language is Dutch, mine is English, but his English is excellent so there is no problems for us communicating. Just sometimes he finds it difficult to find the right English word to express himself. And I have to be careful my accent is clear and I don't use English slang he doesn't understand.
I'm just starting to learn Dutch too (thinking that I'll move there one day.)

[Moon]

Nope, mine is English and his is Finnish. Luckily, he's fluent in English and I'm taking small steps into learning Finnish, just in case I need it one day.