Re: first lang test

> The test, as I heard once, is:
> A "first" lang is one that you, _when alone, by yourself_, automatically
>                     a.  count (or do arithmetic) in
>                     b.  cry in
>                     c.  pray in (or whatever you do in times of great
>                          inner  turmoil)

Since I seem to have started this thread, I ought to contribute to it:

All of the above in both English and Hebrew.

Counting/Math is interesting in my case. I know a lot of people who
learned Hebrew as adults and who are totally fluent in it and who
_can_ count and do arithmetic in it, but who always, by preference,
use their native lang. I was the same, until I started to run into kids
in my therapy who had to learn, among other things, counting and
the names for the numbers. Simple math problems are also good
for certain types of lisp-therapy (The numbers in Hebrew are rich
in /S/.) We won't go into the hours spent helping my own kids with
their math homework when they were small. It got so ingrained that
I do math in Hebrew if I am in a Hebrew-lang situation.



Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.