The Number One Question I Get as a Language Learner
And why it doesn't matter.
When I tell people I learn languages as a hobby, the first thing they often ask is “So… Are you fluent?”
Yes. I would say I do speak Irish fluently.
But before you grab your red pens and grammar books and come for me, let me elaborate on how I define fluent. For me, fluency has nothing to do with how perfectly one speaks a language, but how comfortably.
Can you understand more or less everything that is said to you without having to think about it?
Fluent.
Can you express your thoughts in a way that feels natural and effortless and can be understood by others?
Fluent.
To me, fluency means you can speak fluidly, effortlessly, naturally. You’re not thinking about how to say what you think in the language. You are thinking in the language.
And that includes mistakes! That includes not knowing every word! That includes not speaking exactly like a native speaker!
Being fluent doesn’t mean being perfect, nor does it mean you’re done learning.
A child and a business school graduate are both fluent in their native language. But the way they speak, their vocabulary, comprehension and grammar will be at very different levels. Fluency is a spectrum.
At what point did I start to feel fluent?
When I was two and a half years into my Irish language journey, I spent a week in the Gaeltacht (an Irish speaking region of Ireland) doing a course with Oideas Gael. I spent a week speaking nothing but Irish and I rarely struggled to say what I wanted to say.
However, there were definitely a few times I wasn’t perfectly understood or didn’t perfectly understand someone else. I also know my grammar left a lot to be desired. But I felt fluent. I could converse freely and easily.
It felt like when I was a kid riding a bike for the first time. I remember that day - I didn’t care what anyone else thought of what I looked like. I didn’t care how fast or slow I was going. I didn’t care that I didn’t fully know how to use the brakes yet… (But in retrospect, I should have cared about that one.)
There was just this freedom that came after so much time and dedication spent struggling to learn something and suddenly being able to do it effortlessly.
That’s what speaking Irish felt like to me that summer.
I was fluent. But I wasn’t done learning.
Fluency is often treated as a finish line and the only goal one should have in language learning. Once you get there, you’re done.
But as I’ve already said, my personal definition of fluency isn’t that simple. For me, as much as I enjoyed using my Irish, that only fueled my desire to learn more. Learning became more exciting. I was no longer relegated to textbooks and lessons. I was living through the language. I embraced immersion and expanded my vocabulary, found nuanced ways to structure my sentences, and started to unlock more phrases and figures of speech.
Which more or less brings me to right now.
I can talk about pretty much any topic in Irish and express myself freely. I might have an oddly phrased sentence here or there. Occasionally I won’t know overly technical terms for something such as catalytic converter. (It’s tiontaire catalaíoch, by the way.) And the majority of the time, other fluent speakers have no problem understanding what I have to say and I have no problem understanding them.
So, am I fluent in Irish? Yes. But fluency is not an end point, nor is it a mark of completion. I still make mistakes. I’m still learning. But I achieved the level of comfort and ease I have speaking Irish by making mistakes and learning from them. Fluency isn’t the end of language learning. It’s a sign of resilience and dedication to keep learning and keep leaving our comfort zones. As valuable as those lessons have been in my language learning journey, they have also impacted my journey through life. My perspective on making mistakes is different now. I can’t be expected to get everything right if I haven’t had a chance to learn and learning often means getting it wrong a few times.
How do you define fluent? Do any parts of my journey resonate with you?
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More from Foghlaimeoir:
Irish language version of this article
How I Found the Gaeilge i Mo Chroí
I am glad you write this. Irish is such a wonderful language and the more people speak it the better. After all language is about making the connection and that is done through the warmth of the interaction not the finer points of grammar and syntax
Irish speaking should be enjoyable but the way it is taught doesn't encourage learning (in my opinion) and for some it triggers unhappy memories of their schooldays. Keep up your writing as Gaelige. Go n-eiri leat
I agree with this. I am a creative thinker and to me no piece of work is ever complete. Some times it feels complete maybe even for years but the same as the life death cycle nothing is ever complete.