Signs you are fluent

Anyone who has ever started to learn a language at one point has wondered: How much time does it take to become fluent? But I realized the question we have to ask first is: What is fluent?

It’s hard to tell if you’re fluent because you can not measure it. There are no certain words you have to know to be considered as one and there are no exact rules that you have to follow to become one.

How do you know if you are fluent in a language?

I speak two foreign languages, and these are the signs when I have realized I am fluent in them:

You can see by the way native speakers talk to you, by the way you are able to retain information and think in your target language and when you put theory into practice more easily when learning new things. Let’s dig deeper:

1. Native speakers don’t dumb things down when they talk to you.  When native speakers don’t adjust their wording and their speech so that you can understand it, furthermore if you notice when they do that to others is a great indicator that you are fluent.
2. You get over not being able to recall a word pretty quickly. Beginners usually get very stressed about forgetting a word (which is understandable by the way). However, I’ve noticed that advanced and fluent learners get over this hitch easily because they have sufficient vocabulary and experience to express what they want to say in a different way.
3. You are able to remember information given to you in the target language. When you can remember the same amount of information as you would if it was given to you in your native language that means you are fluent. Your brain doesn’t have to focus on understanding what the person is saying so it can focus more on the information given to you.
4. Not translating in your head comes naturally. Conversations in your target language are not so draining anymore and that’s because you don’t translate in your head.
5. You don’t question grammar rules anymore. By the time you acquire fluency, you have a pretty solid base to build on, so you don’t have to rely on your native language anymore when learning a new rule.
6. You have trouble explaining language rules because you use them without thinking. You know how native speakers are clueless when you ask them grammar questions? When you become just like them it means that you use grammar rules naturally and you don’t have to think about them before using them. You don’t use grammar rules anymore because that’s what you’ve learned in class, you use it because that sounds the best.
7. When unknown words don’t hinder you from understanding what you are listening to or reading. Even when you are fluent you will encounter words that you can’t understand but by this time you have the experience and the vocabulary to figure out what those words mean.

Have you noticed these signs on yourself?

Zsófi

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