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Have you achieved fluency since joining?

  Tags: Fluency
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
39 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4
blindsheep
Triglot
Senior Member
Spain
Joined 6359 days ago

503 posts - 507 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: German

 
 Message 33 of 39
07 May 2009 at 5:01am | IP Logged 
By a bunch of measures I could say I have basic fluency now in French and Spanish which I didn't have when I joined the forum (especially French which I started with nothing), but I've decided to not put them in the speaks category yet... don't know why, but I want both at a C1 level before I give them the basic fluency... so yeah, when I'm there I'll give them the bump up.
1 person has voted this message useful



welles
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5698 days ago

3 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Turkish, German

 
 Message 34 of 39
16 May 2009 at 3:43am | IP Logged 
JasonChoi wrote:


By the way, my definition of fluency is real simple: Being good enough to communicate your ideas on foreign TV shows.

-Jason


This makes me think of Don Francisco singling out Americans on the set of Sabado Gigante to see if they can respond in Spanish. They usually can't, but I'm not so sure I would be able to do better if put on the spot like that. As far as this site, I've probably spent more time than I should have reading the forums instead of El Pais or the various books in Spanish that patiently wait on the bookshelf. I've also started learning French, and have decided that I ultimately want to learn German and Russian as well.
1 person has voted this message useful



JS-1
Diglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5982 days ago

144 posts - 166 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), German, Japanese, Ancient Egyptian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 35 of 39
16 May 2009 at 6:03am | IP Logged 
I went from very basic French to basic fluency since joining the site. I had
previously done the Michel Thomas course, which I think is an amazing way to start the
language, and have since done Assimil. I think that reading made a huge improvement to
my understanding of the language, and now I am learning French songs so I can feel
more secure in my pronunciation. At this stage it's just about polishing my skills, as
I no longer have any problem communicating with French natives.
1 person has voted this message useful



showtime17
Trilingual Hexaglot
Senior Member
Slovakia
gainweightjournal.co
Joined 6083 days ago

154 posts - 210 votes 
Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish
Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch

 
 Message 36 of 39
13 October 2009 at 4:55pm | IP Logged 
Yup, I when I joined I spoke very little Spanish. However since then I became almost fluent in the language. I still have problems, especially speaking with native speakers, but hopefully that will improve as well.
1 person has voted this message useful



LanguageSponge
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5765 days ago

1197 posts - 1487 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, French
Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian

 
 Message 37 of 39
13 October 2009 at 5:53pm | IP Logged 
I like to think that my German is pretty fluent, but again that depends on everyone's own personal definitions of fluency, since it's so subjective. I can communicate in and understand German in all the situations for which I use or encounter the language - reading newspapers, novels, chatting on here in the Deutsch section, listening to music and watching the news. I still have some difficulty in watching films and TV on occasion, but it's often simply a case of rewinding the film and listening once more, and some accents baffle me. For my purposes, I'm fluent, however for someone else, I may be a long way off!

Jack
1 person has voted this message useful



mike789
Newbie
United States
Joined 6326 days ago

39 posts - 51 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 38 of 39
15 October 2009 at 10:30pm | IP Logged 
LanguageSponge wrote:
I like to think that my German is pretty fluent, but again that depends on everyone's own personal definitions of fluency, since it's so subjective.
Whether you're satisfied with the level you're at is indeed a personal choice. However there actually are objective standards in the field, and one can even pay for an evaluation to find out what level they are at. You can see a list of the FSI levels at http://www.amexdc.com/Pictures/FSI%20Language%20Ratings.pdf and find out about taking tests at http://www.languagetesting.com/
1 person has voted this message useful



Belardur
Octoglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5610 days ago

148 posts - 195 votes 
Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots
Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 39 of 39
16 October 2009 at 9:57am | IP Logged 
This thread began about, well, forever ago, but I'll respond anyway.

Since joining I have gone from nothing to the aforementioned ability to express ideas and opinions on a TV show in both French and Dutch. Now, I'd make mistakes, and I'd be surely identified as a non-native, but I would be able to discuss anything that wasn't too esoteric, or discuss in depth in my own professional field, without severely embarrassing myself (that is, to a level that most people would understand me comfortably, and not be tempted to switch languages into English unless they were at a native-level. In Dutch I would probably be assumed to be a German anyway, as I tend to err in that direction). I say this with confidence at least in French, as I did test the language in France, without having to change languages more than once.

I used an introductory-type program (mainly the MT courses) to give me a leg up, and then a great amount of reading and audio consumption to get there.


2 persons have voted this message useful



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