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by levosmetalo 4494 days ago
No, you can have only one second language, and then possibly third, fourth, and so on.
2 comments
gojomo 4494 days ago
Not true in idiomatic English. Any language other than your 'first' can be called a 'second language'. As a common example of this usage, courses to learn English for non-native speakers are called "English as a Second Language (ESL)" - no matter how many other languages the students already know.
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levosmetalo 4493 days ago
Then I guess only native English speakers can have many "second" language. In many other countries there are 1st foreign language and 2nd foreign language classes in the school. And those books are called "English as a foreign language" (Englisch als Fremdsprache).
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Guvante 4494 days ago
[A second language or L2 is any language learned after one's first language.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language)

Otherwise you introduce ambiguity, if I learned 50 words in Spanish and then mastered French, does that mean French is my third language?

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