> So native speakers mostly learn through memorization and internalizing grammar over a long period, instead of explicitly learning the rules of a language. Ba

> So native speakers mostly learn through memorization and internalizing grammar over a long period, instead of explicitly learning the rules of a language. Based on this, I could be considered native English speaker even though I've been speaking English only for the past 1/3 of my life. But that's exactly what I did. There were times when I sat down and read about the grammar in books, but to this day, I have no idea what a second or third conditional is, I just use them "naturally". It was two years ago that I realized what the difference was between an adjective and an adverb. So, I don't really think this is a good explanation of what a native speaker is.