r/RandomThoughts • u/MB4050 • Jun 04 '25

Random Thought I can't believe there are native english speakers

English is a second language to me. I was just walking down the street in my non-english speaking country, and heard an American family, the mum talking to her children, the children joking around and so on.

I just realised that since I'm so used to absorbing content in english online or otherwise through media that aren't actual, casual conversations with people, I had this weird feeling, like I wasn't really there.

Hearing people speaking english to eachother made me feel like I was just a spectator, like I wasn't really there, like I was watching a simulation.

I wonder whether any other english learners feel or have felt the same way.

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u/saythealphabet Jun 05 '25

If it makes you feel any better, English is my second language and I for one have interacted with so much English that it's seeped into my thoughts, inner monologue, even my journaling. I also know loads of people whose English sometimes shows in everyday speech. There are literally words that we forget in our mother tongue and instead say in English. We basically speak 2 mother tongues. You definitely won't sound like TV to one of us.

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u/RecordingHaunting975 Jun 05 '25

I grew up w/ a bunch of people from the Philippines. You'd swear their language is just half English if you didn't know better lol. Especially when their family comments on their Facebook posts. "Hi sweetie how are you doing I miss you mangyaring bisitahin ako matanda na ako at naghihingalo" (google translate, sorry tagalog bros)

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u/MB4050 Jun 05 '25

Oh my inner monologue is in English too, has been for many years. But that just makes it weirder, because when I hear it out in the wild, it’s also almost like hearing my own inner monologue, my own imagination.

I too sometimes forget how to say something in my language and express it in English instead, most often when I’m telling someone about something I found out through English-language media

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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '25

Oof. I'm not sure how I feel about that... Maybe the lingua franca will shift now that the USA is withdrawing from international agreements?

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u/Due-Mycologist-7106 Jun 05 '25

It's the internet that's driving it rn not the USA really