When can you say "I am fluent in X" ?

Actually you'd probably say: Weil du ein Arschloch bist.

The one achievement I had over my whole life was being able to say dickhead in German and you took that away from me..........

seriously though, why would it by arschloch? why not penis head?

I'm sorry!

I've honestly never heard that be used. It's got results on Google but Arschloch seems more common (or Schwachkopf).

I'd also say the accent is quite important as well. Not that you can pass as a native speaker, but that you're good enough that a native would struggle to be certain exactly where you're from. After living in France, my accent went from "Oh hi, English girl speaking French. I'll talk to you in English all the time" to "I can tell you're not French, but where are you from?" I'd hesitate to call people fluent if they have a strong enough accent that it interferes with their conversations. And not in a cliché "PARLAY VOOO ONGLAY" way, but even just putting the stress on the wrong syllables, which throws native speakers off immensely and to me prevents you from being considered fluent.

well I think I would be a bit of a mug to deny your superior knowledge here considering your degree! Nonetheless, I will use your words when I go to Munich in Feb, and I will exit the beer hall at closing time screaming "Arschloch" or "Shwachkopf" purely because I am British, and its like the law or somink to go abroad, get drunk and act like a douche?

Enjoy I lived outside of Munich and I went there. Tbh they probably won't notice cos they can get just as bad when it comes to the Oktoberfest!!

Really? Was that on a placement? One of my favorite Euro cities though I went there when it was sunny and warm. Ha I have heard, I met a guy from Munich on an italian course i went on and he said they love clubbing there!

When you can say "You are a dickhead" in that language. I consider myself nearly fluent in German bar a few grammatical/spelling mistakes .weil du bist ein pimmel kopf"!

well I think I would be a bit of a mug to deny your superior knowledge here considering your degree! Nonetheless, I will use your words when I go to Munich in Feb, and I will exit the beer hall at closing time screaming "Arschloch" or "Shwachkopf" purely because I am British, and its like the law or somink to go abroad, get drunk and act like a douche?

But I find people who study languages tend to set the bar for fluency a lot higher than the average person. Most people would probably consider it "able to have a chat about most things".

Hi,

I'm on my gap year in Spain and am hoping I will be fluent in Spanish by the Summer. However when can you say "I am fluent in Spanish" (or in other matters for that language) as the boundaries for being fluent aren't that defined.

For me fluency means:

- No translation to or from English whatsoever
- being able to read knowing 99% of the words; perhaps one word you don't know every 400 words. Not only is it about understanding the words but also understanding everything that you're reading, no matter if some words are not understood.
- being able to understand everything which you hear, with the exception to some words as stated in the above.
- being able to speak confidently without translation using both colloquial and formal phrases and also idioms with an extensive vocabulary.
- being able to write with the above conditions.
- being able to think in the language almost constantly when speaking to others in spanish, writing etc.
- being fully understood by native speakers but NOT necessarily having a perfect accent.


More or less what I consider to be fluency is the above, more or less - what do you guys think of it?

With Spanish I'm able to talk/speak/write/listen to it without translating to or from English, I'm able to think in it sometimes randomly (even in England ) and also when I want to (frequently its when I can be bothered to put the effort in). A lot of the time I might speak to someone and forget if it was in Spanish or in English. (if the person speaks spanish and english of course). When I write in Spanish, its no longer possible to "explain what I wanted to say in English" because I wrote it in Spanish thinking in Spanish. When I go to the cinema in Spain I understand most of it, only about 15-30 words in each film (1.5 hours) that I don't understand (probably because its conversational Spanish). When I came back to Spain I've spoken a couple of times to my sister in Spanish.

I'm planning on learning idioms, reading newspapers and books to improve on becoming fluent.

So, when will I become fluent?!

Hi,

I'm on my gap year in Spain and am hoping I will be fluent in Spanish by the Summer. However when can you say "I am fluent in Spanish" (or in other matters for that language) as the boundaries for being fluent aren't that defined.

For me fluency means:

- No translation to or from English whatsoever
- being able to read knowing 99% of the words; perhaps one word you don't know every 400 words. Not only is it about understanding the words but also understanding everything that you're reading, no matter if some words are not understood.
- being able to understand everything which you hear, with the exception to some words as stated in the above.
- being able to speak confidently without translation using both colloquial and formal phrases and also idioms with an extensive vocabulary.
- being able to write with the above conditions.
- being able to think in the language almost constantly when speaking to others in spanish, writing etc.
- being fully understood by native speakers but NOT necessarily having a perfect accent.


More or less what I consider to be fluency is the above, more or less - what do you guys think of it?

With Spanish I'm able to talk/speak/write/listen to it without translating to or from English, I'm able to think in it sometimes randomly (even in England ) and also when I want to (frequently its when I can be bothered to put the effort in). A lot of the time I might speak to someone and forget if it was in Spanish or in English. (if the person speaks spanish and english of course). When I write in Spanish, its no longer possible to "explain what I wanted to say in English" because I wrote it in Spanish thinking in Spanish. When I go to the cinema in Spain I understand most of it, only about 15-30 words in each film (1.5 hours) that I don't understand (probably because its conversational Spanish). When I came back to Spain I've spoken a couple of times to my sister in Spanish.

I'm planning on learning idioms, reading newspapers and books to improve on becoming fluent.

So, when will I become fluent?!

my current uni flat mate told me a couple of weeks back that she was a very good french speaker during year 13 and the exam period. she told me how she had many dreams in french...for me, this is a huge sign of being fluent. when i have dreams, everyone speaks english. when i speak german to my uncle i think in english. a couple of days after we had this conversation she told me the last two nights that she had dreamt in french again, despite not speaking much french in months (may exams till november at uni)...so yeah. involuntary thoughts in the language do it for me.

my current uni flat mate told me a couple of weeks back that she was a very good french speaker during year 13 and the exam period. she told me how she had many dreams in french...for me, this is a huge sign of being fluent. when i have dreams, everyone speaks english. when i speak german to my uncle i think in english. a couple of days after we had this conversation she told me the last two nights that she had dreamt in french again, despite not speaking much french in months (may exams till november at uni)...so yeah. involuntary thoughts in the language do it for me.

Really? I've always seen it happen the other way around. I often see people who are studying/learn languages set the bar a lot lower so they call themselves "fluent".

Ya se había dicho que Facebook no pensaba integrarse al mercado accionario pero hoy se publicó en un memorando de la compañia su intención de cotizar en la bolsa neoyorquina

NUEVA YORK, ESTADOS UNIDOS (06/ ENE/ 2011).- La conocida red social Facebook podría llevar a cabo su salida a Bolsa en abril de 2012, según detalla un memorando que la compañía ha enviado a sus potenciales inversores, según revela hoy The Wall Street Journal en su web.

La firma, que está reuniendo fondos para aumentar su capacidad financiera, desvela en ese documento de cien páginas que 2012 sería la fecha elegida para convertirse en una compañía cotizada o, al menos, para empezar a hacer públicas sus cuentas a través de la Comisión del Mercado de Valores de Estados Unidos (SEC, por su sigla en inglés).

Are you taking the piss? You understand everything apart from "15-20 words" during a 90 minute film and you don't believe yourself fluent in Spanish?

Seriously?!

Solo puedo hablar un poquito en espanol (lo siento, no estoy a tiempo de buscar para tildes en mi ordenador) pero me parece que entiendes mucho mas que lo que yo consideraria es el nivel de una persona quien tiene un conocimiento muy bien no solo de la lengua pero la cultura espanola tambien, y por lo tanto, soy del opino que eres fluido. Si quieres leer un periodoco espanol, obviamente, sus habilidades mejorara pero, como he dicho, ya tienes una destreza que es envidiable enormemente. El Pais, BBC Mundo y otros medios de comunicacion imparciales proporcionan una base desde que puedes perfeccionar

(hopefully that's all right, my current A2 Spanish is a little dodgy to say the least!)

Hi,

I'm on my gap year in Spain and am hoping I will be fluent in Spanish by the Summer. However when can you say "I am fluent in Spanish" (or in other matters for that language) as the boundaries for being fluent aren't that defined.

For me fluency means:

- No translation to or from English whatsoever
- being able to read knowing 99% of the words; perhaps one word you don't know every 400 words. Not only is it about understanding the words but also understanding everything that you're reading, no matter if some words are not understood.
- being able to understand everything which you hear, with the exception to some words as stated in the above.
- being able to speak confidently without translation using both colloquial and formal phrases and also idioms with an extensive vocabulary.
- being able to write with the above conditions.
- being able to think in the language almost constantly when speaking to others in spanish, writing etc.
- being fully understood by native speakers but NOT necessarily having a perfect accent.


More or less what I consider to be fluency is the above, more or less - what do you guys think of it?

With Spanish I'm able to talk/speak/write/listen to it without translating to or from English, I'm able to think in it sometimes randomly (even in England ) and also when I want to (frequently its when I can be bothered to put the effort in). A lot of the time I might speak to someone and forget if it was in Spanish or in English. (if the person speaks spanish and english of course). When I write in Spanish, its no longer possible to "explain what I wanted to say in English" because I wrote it in Spanish thinking in Spanish. When I go to the cinema in Spain I understand most of it, only about 15-30 words in each film (1.5 hours) that I don't understand (probably because its conversational Spanish). When I came back to Spain I've spoken a couple of times to my sister in Spanish.

I'm planning on learning idioms, reading newspapers and books to improve on becoming fluent.

So, when will I become fluent?!