{"id":2430,"date":"2014-08-27T05:41:49","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T09:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:15:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:15:50","slug":"flawless-impossible-fluency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2014\/08\/27\/flawless-impossible-fluency\/","title":{"rendered":"Flawless, Impossible Fluency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Itchy<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Germans have this funny habit of downplaying how good their English is. I feel pretty confident in saying that, aside from perhaps the Scandinavians and the Dutch, Germans speak the best English in mainland Europe. And yet every time I ask a German stranger if they speak English, they either fidget and shuffle their feet and say \u201chmm, a little bit,\u201d or they just say \u201cno.\u201d A little more conversation reveals that they\u2019re pretty much fluent in English (of course, if I start in German and make a mistake\u2014they immediately switch to English! Figure that one out).<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I\u2019m not all that different. I downplay my skill in adopted languages as humbly as any German. My dad has started introducing me to people by saying, \u201cthis is my son, he speaks perfect German,\u201d over my embarrassed protests. Many of us language learners are shy about our language ability, and I think I\u2019ve figured out why: we don\u2019t actually know what \u201cfluent\u201d means.<\/p>\n

To be \u201cfluent\u201d in a new tongue is the holy grail of language learning. We want to be able to speak and understand perfectly. The trouble is, unless you\u2019ve already climbed the language ladder once before, you don\u2019t have any point of reference aside from your mother language. And let\u2019s face it\u2014to be so good at a foreign language that it is as good as your mother language is a bit of a stretch. Your language goals are somewhere up in the clouds, intangible and mysterious. You\u2019re reaching too far. \u201cFluent\u201d does not mean \u201cperfect,\u201d but that\u2019s what you think it means.<\/p>\n

So because to you \u201cfluent\u201d means \u201cmother language-level,\u201d you\u2019re easily disappointed. You don\u2019t know what your language level is exactly, but you know it\u2019s not fluent, because it doesn\u2019t come out as naturally as your native tongue. You must still be trudging along the gravelly road, the destination still shimmering impossibly far in the distance. Of course you\u2019re shy when someone asks you if you \u201cspeak\u201d that language, you have no idea!<\/p>\n

Literally defined, \u201cfluent\u201d means graceful, easy, flowing like a liquid. It doesn\u2019t mean impeccable, it doesn\u2019t mean flawless. It doesn\u2019t mean perfect. What it means for your language ability is up to you<\/em> to decide.<\/p>\n

When I decided I didn\u2019t want to live in Berlin forever, but I wanted my German to be better than it is, I realized I had to set a very specific goal for my language learning, or I\u2019d never think it was good enough, and I\u2019d never leave. I decided I don\u2019t care much about prepositions, articles, or adjective endings\u2014you can be perfectly well-understood in German without using them perfectly, and anyway, even Germans routinely screw them up. Rather, I want to be able to speak without thinking too much about what I\u2019m saying. Specifically, I want to be able to use all the verb tenses (future perfect, past perfect, pluperfect) and moods (past and present subjunctive II) without sitting there for ten minutes running conjugation charts in my head. I can talk about what had happened, what will have happened, and what would, should, and could have happened. At that point, I will be able to speak German fluently, by my own definition. I\u2019ll be able to fully communicate. The rest is just new vocab words.<\/p>\n

Now that I have defined my goal, I\u2019m able to own my language level. \u201cDo you speak German?\u201d someone will ask. \u201cYes,\u201d I\u2019ll say. It\u2019s true; I do speak it. But just as \u201cfluent\u201d does not mean \u201cperfect,\u201d \u201cspeaking\u201d a language does not mean \u201cfluent\u201d in that language.<\/p>\n

You have to decide for yourself what \u201cfluent\u201d means.<\/p>\n

What about you? How do you define \u201cfluent\u201d? Have you reached that fluency in a language? Does that help you meter goals for other languages you\u2019re learning?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Germans have this funny habit of downplaying how good their English is. I feel pretty confident in saying that, aside from perhaps the Scandinavians and the Dutch, Germans speak the best English in mainland Europe. And yet every time I ask a German stranger if they speak English, they either fidget and shuffle their…<\/p>\n

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