Essay

Native or Near Native: What's the Difference?

by John Humpert

Whom do you trust to build your culturally sensitive bridge to international business: a native or near-native speaker? Your best answer may not be obvious or clear-cut.

Consider this scenario: you are in Turkey, assembling a cookbook to be translated into American English. The writing style should reflect the essence of the Turkish culinary experience. You can hire a Turk with near-native American English skills, or an American with near-native Turkish skills. All else being equal, whom would you hire?

In another example, your client is a Japanese firm for whom you are preparing a video for their employees at a facility in Mexico. Assuming that both are available to read the Spanish script, should you hire a Mexican talent, without regard to his or her experience with Japanese culture or a Japanese talent who speaks Mexican Spanish? I have my preferences, which I'll explain later.

Clarifying the Distinction

Native speakers spend all or substantial parts of their developmental years (childhood and adolescence) within a particular language-bound geographic area. They acquire the language because they are immersed in it. In everyday home life, in social activities, and at school, native speakers converse with other native speakers. Given substantial exposure to multiple cultures, some children grow up as native speakers of several languages.

In contrast, a near-native speaker usually acquires language skills after childhood, and relies less on family and social immersion to learn the fundamentals. While nursery rhymes, parent-child interaction, playtime with peers, and wonderfully receptive minds help children internalize their mother language, adults typically struggle with a desire to "figure it out." For grown-ups, classroom instruction, self-study books, cassettes, or software are quicker, more accessible means to learning a language; the trade-off is that these methods are less thorough. In addition, adults lack the "sponge" dynamic of the youthful mind. If you don't know what I mean, sit down with a six-year-old and play a game of Concentration or Husker Du?

Personal, political, or economic events motivate a person to commit significant time to learn a second language. Eventually, that person acquires fluency, which includes the ability to reasonably predict what could be said or written next in a given situation, just like native speakers.

Understanding a Language from the Outside

I am a near-native speaker of German. I started learning German at age 18 but did not become fluent until I spent six months living in Germany. In total, I have spent more than three years there, mainly in Northern Germany. Today, in the United States, I regularly speak German with family members.

While in Germany, I spoke, wrote, thought, shopped, ate, and even dreamed in German. Unlike native speakers who take many of the day's events in stride, as an outsider I experienced daily life on a more conscious level. I was fascinated by the web of wonders and discoveries revealed to me about German language, history, and society through direct experience. I enjoyed piecing together a language model and making predictions about how natives deal with given circumstances, then verifying those over time. Immensely more complex than a stereotype, the model and predictions keep evolving.

It's difficult for native speakers to astutely observe and interpret the social and language influences that shape them. Just as it takes special effort to see your own nose, native speakers of a language find it hard to see what makes them tick culturally and socially. We must depend on observations that are tempered by other perspectives. Therefore, near-native speakers often have more accurate insights about a culture than natives speakers.

Asking the Right Question

I was recently called by a man needing a German native speaker for a recording session. His first question was "Are you a native speaker?" I sensed that responding with "No, near-native," would result in a quick withdrawal of this interesting assignment.

When asked that question, I would like to counter with: "Well, who is your audience? What are you trying to accomplish?" In a business interview, I am uncertain whether the questioner wants a technically correct answer to that question, or whether he or she really meant to ask "Are you any good at speaking German?"

When confronted with a situation like this, ask yourself how much "nativeness" is really required.

Meeting Audience Expectations

The audience's perspective is critical to the success of your project. When the audience expects culture-bound, expressive, highly literate work (the kind that makes them "feel at home") you need an educated native speaker.

If I were to work on a publication for release in Germany and the topic lent itself to a "feel-at-home" experience, I would not lead the project but I could participate in it. The reason for this is because my way of speaking lacks the deftness, economy, and resonance of native speech, not because I cannot express my ideas. In my experience, few people can match the language skills of educated native speakers of a language that is complex and rooted in millennia of history.

Conversely, if it is safe to presume that your audience expects a cross-cultural experience, then a conscientious near-native speaker may better serve your needs. Why? The audience has already linked the message with its foreign source and has come to expect a cross-cultural experience. In turn, when the message is delivered by a near-native speaker, congruency between audience expectation and actual presentation results, enhancing the overall credibility of the message.

Also, when the subject is technical, and culture-bound content is intentionally minimal, a near-native with technical writing skills can deal more effectively with a project than a native speaker new to technical writing.

Making Choices

Back to the Turkish cookbook and the Mexican video.

In the first scenario, I recommend the American with near-native Turkish language skills. In this situation, the final product is an American English publication. The American audience will expect the presentation to come to them on their own terms.

In the second scenario, I recommend the Japanese who speaks Mexican Spanish. In this case, the audience consists of Mexican employees of the Japanese-owned firm. The message is more likely to register as authentic if it is rendered by someone with an understanding of both cultures, even if the language is not as finely tuned.

John Humpert is a technical writer in Cincinnati, Ohio. His first teaching experience involved helping adults in Germany learn English. He has since been helping Americans learn German. He encourages all to follow their interest in second-language study.