Are native speakers of English proud?

English is an international language and virtually everyone in the world learns it as a primary foreign language unless s/he lives in a hermit kingdom.

Native speakers of English don't really need to learn foreign languages because when they go to a non-English speaking country, there is always someone who speaks at least a little bit of English.

So I was wondering if native speakers of English are proud of themselves or grateful for being a native speaker of English.

Dear Native English Speakers, are you proud or grateful?

If I were a native English speaker I would have mixed feelings about the fact that English is the global lingua franca. I mean, this situation is a double edge sword for English speakers. On one hand, they are not pressed to learn a foreign language like we non native speakers are and they can travel around the world and communicate with ease in their own language. On the other hand the level of many non natives (me included) is not good and English speakers may feel angry whey they see so many people around the world butchering their lovely language. English is the most studied tongue but probably the least mastered one.

<<Dear Native English Speakers, are you proud or grateful? >>

Political correctness requires native English speakers to be ashamed of their language, culture, heritage, history, and ancestors.

According to PC doctrine, English is the language of imperialism, exploitation of other cultures, destruction of the environment, genocide and mass murder, war crimes, and everything else on this planet that's bad. In fact, it's the most evil language on earth, beating out the other European languages by a wide margin.

As for the language itself, many folks around here consider it a 'toy' language, because of it's extreme simplicity. In fact, it's been said that English is so simplified that it's impossible to express complex and subtle ideas in it. Perhaps English even wraps its native speakers in a "mental straightjacket", permanently impairing their thought patterns (both verbal and non-verbal) for life.

In short, and PC E1Lers should be ashamed of themselves and ask the rest of the world for forgiveness.

I'm a native English speaker and I'm not proud of it. But I don't see it as something to be proud or ashamed of. Your mother tongue is your mother tongue and everyone has to have one. I was born in America to a very, very monolingual family. It's probably familiarity bias at work, but I've always wished I'd been raised with another language (or two) at home and learned English through school and elsewhere, or been left to learn it at home because I'm fluent in it now and it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to learn. But I've never had to learn it on my own.

I do think that people who speak English and only English should be ashamed of themselves. Even if it's not the most incredibly fun experience for everyone, it really does improve your first language to learn a second. And if there is any language that is more poorly spoken by it's native speakers than English, I don't know what it is.

Because so many people speak English, native English speakers (such as myself) are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning other languages. For example, when I was in Germany, all my German friends wanted to practice their English rather than speak German with me.

I'm proud to be from Texas and proud to be an American, and so why shouldn't I be proud to speak English?

If you are from Texas, tell me, are there still big cultural differences between Southern States and the Northern ones?

I'm a native speaker of English and I'm sat on the fence about it.
I live in a place where my nation's native language has been pushed to second language status by the English language.
In that respect I feel a bit threatened but on the other hand the two languages co-exist and I've spoken English all my life.
I feel that English speaking people don't make enough of an effort to learn other languages and have become ignorant because everyone else can speak English.
Too learn another language expands your vocabulary and can give you more success in integrating into another society.
I learn French, Cornish and German and each of those languages has expanded my life by so much!

@ Jargo:
<I live in a place where my nation's native language has been pushed to second language status by the English language.>

I'm making the leap you are Irish or Welsh?

"I'm sat on the fence."

I've never heard this from a native English speaker. What kind of English is this?

@ Super Korean:
<I'm making the leap you are Irish or Welsh? >

No, I'm Cornish!

@ Curious:
<I've never heard this from a native English speaker. What kind of English is this? >

I thought it was used all over the place but obviously it's just a British saying. It means that I have a neutral viewpoint. I have equal feelings on both sides of the argument.

I haven't heard it like that before. I've heard "I'm sitting on the fence." and "I'm on the fence." only.

Why "sat", please?

I think it doesn't make sense to be proud *or* ashamed of something over which you have no control - like your nation of birth, or your native language.

I'd say the vast majority of native English speakers are indifferent about it, as am I. To me English is just 'normal', part of my everyday life and I have no control over it. As an analogy, I don't feel proud that in my country bread is the main staple, whereas it is rice in some other countries. I just eat bread because there's nothing wrong with it and it's readily available. I don't think much about it. Similarly, I don't feel proud that in my country we use toilets rather than those squat things like in Asia. It's just how things are.

The same with English. In our everyday lives it makes little difference whether English is international or not, unless you are a frequent traveller. We just speak English because that's what our parents spoke. We read English because we don't read French. We write in English because we don't write in Russian. Some people like poets may have a special attachment to English, but that's understandable. For most people English is just their means of communication, as cars are their means of transport, or toilets their means of relieving themselves, or bread their means of nourishing themselves.

<<"I'm sat on the fence."

I've never heard this from a native English speaker. What kind of English is this? >>

In colloquial British English, it's perfectly common to use the verb "sat" in place of "sitting". Ex:

"So, I'm sat there watching tele, when suddenly, I hear a loud crash outside."

"You’ve been misbehaving, that’s why you’re sat there in the 'time-out' chair."

To American ears, this sounds completely wrong.

***English speakers may feel angry when they see so many people around the world butchering their lovely language***

No - we do NOT "feel angry" in this situation, and surely you are being extremely hard on yourselves, as learners of "our lovely Language", as you put it, when you accuse youselves of "butchering" it in the process! Chill out!

What DOES make many of us angry, those of us literally born into the English Language from the moment the maternity nurse snips our umbilical cords in the delivery room, and who subsequently came to love and adore our native tongue with passion, are our own kind, similarly born into it, but who have such little regard for it that they decimate it in the speaking of it. This has nothing whatsoever to do with their respective accents and regional dialects - more to do with a complete linguistic massacre in its delivery in a variety of ways. So much so that you learners eventually end up speaking English more correctly, more coherently and infinitely more clearly than many of our own home grown native borns who seem to think it fine to bumble and mumble and stumble their way through it all.

Just tune into such crass TV shows (here in the UK anyway) such as the gross Jeremy Kyle Show, which draws its participants from the direst of this country's sink estates, and you will see what I mean.

So don't be so hard on yourselves out there in the wider world. You are doing fine, and going by the standard of your opening post, Super Korean, you definitely are.

Of course I am proud of my native Language. I make my living out of it, just for starters!