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I have been a teacher for over twenty years and I always get the question: how long till I become fluent in a foreign language?

Since there is no definite answer to the fluency question, I hope the following descriptions will give you a better understanding of what’s expected when learning a language, and the different levels achieved*.

Novice (Beginner)

A novice has extremely limited vocabulary and grammar, understands very little of the language when spoken normally, has difficulty making self understood by native speakers, and thus has serious problems in an immersion situation. A novice may be able to order food in a restaurant, buy a train ticket, and find lodging for the night, but only with great difficulty.

Survivor (Intermediate)

A survivor converses using basic vocabulary (time, date, weather, family, clothes); uses the present, past, and future tenses more or less correctly; and is aware of difficult grammar topics (e.g., subjunctive, relative pronouns), but either uses them incorrectly or awkwardly rearranges sentences in order to avoid them. Still needs to tote a dictionary and/or phrase book around, but can survive in an immersion situation: order food, give and receive directions, take a taxi, etc.

Conversationalist (Advanced)

A conversationalist has the ability to converse about fairly abstract ideas, state opinions, read newspapers, understand the language when spoken normally (on TV, radio, film, etc.) with slight-to-moderate difficulty. Still has some trouble with specialized vocabulary and complicated grammar, but can reorganize sentences in order to communicate and figure out the majority of new vocabulary within the context.

Debater (Fluent)

A fluent speaker can participate in extended conversations, understand the language when spoken normally (on TV, radio, film, etc.), figure out meaning of words within context, debate, and use/understand complicated grammatical structures with little or no difficulty. Has good accent and understands dialects with slight-tomoderate difficulty.

Native Speaker (Mother Tongue)

Someone who has spoken the language from at least the age of 5 (this age limit is subject to some debate: I’ve heard theories that a native speaker can have started learning the language as late as any time up to puberty). In theory, understands essentially everything in the language: all vocabulary, complicated grammatical structures, cultural references, and dialects. Has a native (i.e., invisible, “normal” in his/her region) accent.

*I borrowed this definitions from my friend and Hebrew blogger Sean Young. Obrigado, Sean!

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