How Do You Know When Youre Fluent
7 signs you are FLUENT in your second language
Non certain whether you can write the magic discussion on your CV and live up to the expectations? Only lookout out for these signs:
one. You don't remember in what language you've read something
Once I read an interesting commodity and didn't share it on Twitter (I know, crazy).
A few days later I institute myself desperately searching for it online. I could remember the topic, but not the publication. I started googling bits, only zero. Zero results. I had almost given up when suddenly information technology striking me. What if…?
I googled the aforementioned words in Italian, and magically, in that location it was.
When y'all are fluent in ii languages, your brain tin can switch from one to the other without really thinking*. That, at times, can cause some confusion in the Stored Information Department… Just nosotros tin't have it all, can we?
2. You tin tell an interesting story
Nosotros all start from the basics. Nosotros tell people virtually what we do and where we're from. At the get-go, information technology's deadening. So fun things get-go happening to us (usually afterward a couple of drinks) and so nosotros become more interesting. A few nights out later, we've finally crafted information technology: our story. And every fourth dimension nosotros tell information technology, information technology gets better, until nosotros qualify as proficient storytellers in our ain biography. Outset things first!
Telling a story in a 2nd language is no easy task. You lot demand to have a construction. You demand to get people to listen and follow you. You need to sound confident and relaxed. All of this ordinarily comes with a lot of training and feel. And you know what else comes with that? Fluency.
3.You can't translate words in your native language
The other day an Italian student asked me what the word 'awkward' meant. I spent 5 minutes looking for an Italian equivalent in my head, and failed. Awkwardness is such an English thing, Italians don't really have a word for it. Information technology's like an exotic illness: they may get the individual symptoms, only not the true pain.
Knowing ii or more languages is more than than being human dictionaries (even though that's exactly what your students recall you are). When yous're fluent in a second linguistic communication, you become things that belong to a culture other than your ain, and take that translation simply isn't enough sometimes.
4. Y'all make upwardly new words… In your native language
The start reason I wanted to become fluent in English language was not to sound similar an idiot whenever I spoke . Nonetheless, that did not help me once I got back home. I still retrieve the puzzled looks on my parents' faces as I deemed an item not very 'affordabile' (I meant to say 'economico') or when I criticised somebody's 'attitudine' (should have said 'atteggiamento') and hoped the 'conservativi' ('conservatori'… in hindsight, fifty-fifty 'tory' would have worked amend) didn't win. And then dumb. Tin't believe I still have friends in this state.
Again, it'due south the encephalon struggling to stick to one linguistic communication at a time. That happens a lot with words that audio similar in both languages, even though they take different meanings. For example, the give-and-take 'attitudine' does be in Italian, but information technology ways 'inclination', not 'attitude'. Which is not something you should criticise, really.
5. You understand the lyrics of an old song
This happens all the time. I'yard in the auto and that song I used to beloved every bit a kid comes up on the radio. I become so excited because I notwithstanding remember every annotation, and I desire to sing along… Simply and so I realise I take no idea what the actual lyrics are. Because this is the first time the song has a significant to me, and words I can brand sense of. Information technology is the strangest feeling, listening to something so familiar and new at the same time. A revelation, near.
Song lyrics can be difficult to understand even for native speakers. There's a lot going on at the same time, and poetic licence often makes information technology complicated to guess what the singer is on nearly. That's exactly why agreement the lyrics of an old song means y'all are a pro. Finally yous can enjoy listening to those cheesy ninety's songs for a good reason! Await, what? …Y'all don't like them at present?
6. You lot tin't stand dubbed films whatever longer
Once I saw Leonardo DiCaprio dying (every bit he often does) at the cease of a picture show. It was very tragic, something carefully designed to make viewers shed a tear. Except, his last words were in Spanish. Leonardo DiCaprio spoke Spanish. Information technology was only hilarious. I started laughing and so hard that I concluded up crying anyway…
Dubbed films are simply ridiculous and even when they're supposed to make you laugh, they're never equally fun as the original version. Once you realise that, you won't be able to become to the cinema in Spain or in Italia anymore. Every bit a result, yous'll lose many friends, but at to the lowest degree you'll know that you lot're actually fluent in some other language. Congrats!
7. You start getting the humour and making jokes
I still think the first fourth dimension I made someone laugh later saying something in English language. And it wasn't because I said 'I like crap' instead of 'crab' or anything like that. It was because I got not just the words right, but likewise the tone and, on an unconscious level, the sense of sense of humour. In other words, I had merely reached the adjacent level in the game of fluency.
To exist truly fluent in a language, you also need to understand its civilization and the way native speakers think. A good sign that you are doing it right is… Existence able to make a good joke! Considering a sense of humor, in most cases, is the issue of a cheeky utilise of linguistic communication tempered by cultural awareness.
*In bilingual people, both languages are e'er active in the encephalon at the same time. Which sounds cool only kind of drains a lot of bombardment power besides.
Source: https://elisabettaland.medium.com/7-signs-you-are-fluent-in-your-second-language-a5b7c913c988
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