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When do you "speak" a language? | ||
Tags: Speaking | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4146 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 9 of 28 07 August 2014 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
Well, if that's all it takes, then I guess I'm already fluent in Tagalog! Haha! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 10 of 28 07 August 2014 at 9:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I personally think I 'speak' a language when you can wake me up at 4 am and I can deal with any given situation in that language, while only being vaguely aware that I am speaking that language.
Meaning, mostly automatic and the mistakes I make don't hinder communication. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6905 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 11 of 28 07 August 2014 at 11:01am | IP Logged | ||
Oh, that would be me :). Admittedly, I am thinking now about moving Swedish here to the "Speaks" section - but it took me some time and some native speakers telling me that I really do speak Swedish ;). (Nice to be back here after yet another long break!) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5209 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 28 07 August 2014 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's been discussed a lot before, but nothing wrong with getting some new perspectives, and the search function on here isn't great!
In informal terms, if I can understand quite well and manage a conversation (say B1 active skills) I'll say I can speak, although in many situations I might add a disclaimer like "I speak some xyz" to make it clear that I'm not exactly fluent. For the distinction between "speaks" and "studies" on the forum I go with the forum's definition of "basic fluency" which seems around B2. I'd never rely on native speakers' feedback! If I took it to heart then I'd be a beginner in French and perfect at Italian, when neither is true and to say the least my French is decidedly more advanced. I think I'm in a better position to judge by myself. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5734 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 13 of 28 07 August 2014 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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That long B2-C1 plateau.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4585 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 14 of 28 07 August 2014 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I say I can speak a language if I can maintain a conversation in it after a glass of
wine. I say I'm fluent in a language if I can still maintain the conversation after a bottle ;) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4670 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 15 of 28 08 August 2014 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
We can blame it on publishers... Most English/EFL textbooks are either ''beginner'', ''intermediate'' or ''upper intermediate''. ''advanced'' English courses are difficult to find. Edited by Medulin on 08 August 2014 at 1:02am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4446 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 16 of 28 08 August 2014 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||
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In my part of the world, the Chinese community is generally divided into Cantonese & Mandarin-
speaking. Some are fluent speaking both but not all. If 2 Chinese are talking, they'd switch to English if 1 is more comfortable with Cantonese and the other with Mandarin. They won't even try to speak each other's Chinese dialect. Once we had a family dinner with 2 out of town guests from China. Everybody at the dinner table spoke Mandarin except 1 who only speaks Cantonese. Normally we would speak English to accommodate him. The whole evening he was sitting like a mute. A while ago, somebody dialled the wrong number looking for Mr. Li and said something like: 请问你李先生在不在？As a person who answered the phone could have said: ”Sorry, you got the wrong number“ or the Chinese version: 對不起，你打錯了電話. If you replied in English, the person on the other end would assume you don't speak Chinese. He/she may say something like "Sorry about that" or simply hang up the phone. If the person just hangs up the phone, you can assume he/she doesn't speak English (fluently) and realized a Chinese person isn't on the other end of the line. Personally, if you are comfortable carrying on a conversation at any level, you are considered fluent in the language. You may come across words & phrases you don't hear very well but can ask the speaker to say it in another way or more slowly: "Je ne vous comprends pas, parlez plus lentement, SVP" sort of thing. Some people can only say a few words of greetings like bonjour, buongiorno, こんにちは (konichiwa), 你好 (nǐhǎo) out of courtesy but would switch to English after that. Edited by shk00design on 08 August 2014 at 2:03am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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