The True Level of the Natives
English

The True Level of the Natives

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education
language learning
linguistics
culture

The last few days I've been thinking about why almost everyone who teaches or learns languages says that native speakers of their mother tongue don't know how to use certain words or that they make a lot of grammatical errors. I can certify that this happens in Spanish, for example I know people who do not know how to use "porque" or "por qué" correctly, and these words are widely used in everyday life. There are many more examples, but this isn't the subject of this post. I also make mistakes in Spanish. Furthermore, I believe that part of this problem is due to the deficient education in my country.

In addition, I think it's important to discuss this issue in the language community because some people may lose the enjoyment of learning a language in the pursuit of fluency when there are native speakers who can live without fluency in their own language, and with making mistakes. It's clear that there are people who need to have the best possible level in a language for their job, so their situation is different.

However, I don't want to be misunderstood. I just want to express that even native speakers make grammatical mistakes, and that there is no shame in making mistakes, as you are discovering a new world. On the other hand, Of course you can reach a high level, make few mistakes, communicate easily, be happy with your skills, and enjoy using your new language in which you have put a lot of effort to be a good learner.

To conclude, I have heard that native speakers make mistakes in their own mother tongue and those languages are German, French and English, the languages I'm learning. Have you heard of this? Does it also happen in your native language? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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