혹시 ‘second language’와 ‘foreign language’를 정확하게 구분하시고 계십니까?

“Japanese is my second language.”  VS   “Japanese is my foreign language.’

이 두 문장을 보면 다르다는 사실은 알겠는데 막상 “어떻게 다른데?”라고 질문이 들어오면 

바로 답을 하기가 곤란할 수도 있을 것입니다. 

쉽게 설명하기 위해서 개인적인 경우를 예로 들어 설명하겠습니다.

“저는 한국어를 모국어로 하며 현재 미국에서 영어를 가르치면서 지내고 있습니다. 

그리고 틈틈히 재미삼아서 일본어와 중국어를 공부한답니다.”

“My first language is Korean and second langue is English. 

It’s hard to say that Japanese is my third language 

because I cannot speak Japanese as fluently as English. 

So, I would say Japanese is one of my foreign languages.”

여기서 보실 수 있는 것 처럼 “second language’는 말그대로 ‘제 2의 언어’입니다.

‘foreign language’는 ‘외국어’이구요.

“English가 많은 분들의 ‘second language’인데 동시에 ‘foreign language’가 될수도 있는 것 아닌가요?”

만약 English를 생활의 수단으로 사용하지 않고 단순히 공부의 선상에서만 놓여있다면 

그런 분들께는 ‘foreign language’가 될 수 있을 것입니다. 

하지만 만일 여러분들이 지금 영미권에서 생활을 하시고 계신다면 

English는 생활의 수단이 되므로 ‘foreign language’가 아닌 ‘second language’로 반드시 구분하셔서 사용

해야 할 것입니다.