English as a family language
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English father tongue
So what sort of English did Ken, our dad, speak and where did it come from? There are things I can see now that were invisible when I was growing up. Particularly, that there were multiple Irish undertones to it all. He didn't speak foreign languages but he had a good ear and an ability to tune in to the language being spoken around him that was uncanny. A language chameleon.
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English mother tongue
I have been teaching my mother tongue as a foreign language most of my life. But what sort of English did my mother speak and what was the language-model she encountered at home and at school? How did she become a so accent aware? And where did she learn to be such a stickler for linguistic accuracy?
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English – familiar or foreign language ?
I have no memory of learning to speak English. It is my mother tongue and was there as a given in a family where it was the only language we all spoke. After all these years, it has become an object which I can now also contemplate as a foreign language, a medium which I can visit, explore, use, leave, then come back to as required. Unless - unknown to me - it was simply foreign right from the beginning? How can English change from being a familiar to a foreign language?
