What qualifies you as an English native speaker?

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I used to think that once you are a citizen of the UK or USA, then you are a native speaker of English. So wrong! The truth is you can live anywhere and still be a native speaker of English even though you have never been to the UK or the USA. If you grew up hearing and speaking English, if English is the language you are exposed to as a kid, then you are a native speaker of English. What that means is we have a lot of native speakers of English all around the world. People who can't even speak their mother tongue. A lot of the kids that we have in Nigeria are native speakers because they got exposed to that language and they think in that language. Their ability to communicate in English is very strong. If you learnt English later in life and got really fluent, you don't qualify as a native speaker. You only qualify if you got exposed to the language at an early age. The implication is that your mother tongue will be your second language. You don't have to be born in a country where English is their first language before we can call you a native speaker of English.