I used to think you had to have a C1-C2 level to be considered fluent, but recently I have been feeling the strain of trying to get to that level in 5 languages... This video definitely made me feel better. B2 is perfectly enough for me as far as most of the languages I'm learning are concerned.

@Thelinguist

6 жыл бұрын

I agree with you, and I don't really worry about what my level is.

@alfieohanlon6738

5 ай бұрын

@@Thelinguistso is it good to have B1 level in 2 languages at the age of 16!

@juliab3326

4 ай бұрын

@@alfieohanlon6738 He said, he doesn´t care about levels, to there´s no poin in asking this. Especially since age is not a valid measurement of success anyway. Most Europeans speak multiple languages at a B1 level before they enter high school. Does it matter? No, not really. Whether it´s "good anough" depends on your own goals and whether a certain level is a requirement for something you want to achieve.

I agree with you: an intermediate level is just fine. The most important thing is to be able to converse and to communicate with other people in a foreign language in a meaningful way on a variety of subjects. Some people pay needless attention to meaningless details.

Great video! I agree 100% :)

@BestRareR

3 жыл бұрын

Haha you're here too I follow you 😄

@RD-qr3kb

3 жыл бұрын

:0

@mandarinjourneyswithnanno

2 жыл бұрын

Ikenna (:

@BoostGlitch357

2 жыл бұрын

How are you holding up with your sickness?

I would say C1 stands for being truly fluent in the target language. It means you have no troubles at all expressing yourself perfectly no matter be it in the written or oral form as well. B2 means you may be fluent orally, however you still make errors when it comes to writing a business text etc.

@brendon2462

3 жыл бұрын

You can have poor writing skills and speak very well. They're two different skills. Really what makes you fluent is pronunciation, vocabulary passive and active, intonation, correct stress and reductions, and flow. You can be considered b1 and speak better than a b2. Same thing with reading. Read good but can't produce the language very well.

Anyone who says you don't know Japanese because you (Steve) use わたくし instead of わたし pretty obviously does not speak Japanese because when you do speak, it's clearly evident you have a strong mastery of the grammar and have absolutely no issues conversing in the language. Any Japanese person would have no issues understanding what you're saying. So someone who gets hung up on semantics of which 'I' to use should be aspiring to get on your level.

@MarkBH70

7 жыл бұрын

That was nice and considerate of you, sir. Ohaio gozaimasu from the US! (But you maybe in the US. :))

@brianconn6434

7 жыл бұрын

While I'm pretty sure most Japanese say わたし more often than わたくし, I totally agree: using that as a way of discrediting a language learner is unnecessarily nitpicky and, ironically, maybe also demonstrates you know very little of the language. I can understand why some Japanese learners are defensive though: there are a lot of people out there who can barely introduce themselves who claim they "can speaking Japanese fluently". But still, there's no need to go overboard. I would definitely say Mr. Kaufmann can speak Japanese (better than most people, for sure).

@justakathings

3 жыл бұрын

わたくし is a more formal version of 私(わたし) mostly used when speaking to a group of people (that’s where I’ve heard it)

I can't help but admire your passion and dedication for learning languages and great video by the way.

I think so too. When I speak Spanish, I can easily understand it, I can carry on a conversation for hours with anyone, and I can watch TV shows without subtitles. But I took the Spanish Literacy Test and I'm at an Intermediate Level. I feel like I am fluent though because the language easily flows out without having to think about every single and word.

I agree... I would say I’m a strong B2 weak C1 in Spanish. My comprehension is really good and I can communicate anything I need to say with some grammatical errors at times and at times having to give my brain a moment to retrieve the words.. If I spoke more often I would undoubtedly hit a high level of Spanish.. but my focus is on French which just recently I was sort evaluated as a B2... but i struggle with comprehension. I can’t watch French movies without subtitles and I still lack a lot of vocabulary. It’s interesting that I’m roughly at the same level with both these languages yet my capabilities in each of them respectively are different.

@alfieohanlon6738

5 ай бұрын

Any tips on how to go from B1 in Spanish to B2?

@Bfolks84

5 ай бұрын

@@alfieohanlon6738 read! Read everything you can and watch movies. That will help a lot !

@LordAus123

Ай бұрын

@@alfieohanlon6738at this point you should choose a target dialect if you haven’t. We say “Spanish” like it’s one thing but really it’s a collage of different dialects with different features. So focus on speaking ___ Spanish instead of the amorphous and unnatural “Spanish”.

@perryemerald9156

Ай бұрын

@@alfieohanlon6738 Watch a variety of content. im around a B2 level and there’s accents i understand perfectly and others it’s really difficult (for me, people from Argentina/Uruguay are difficult to understand). So if you watch let’s say political videos, sports, daily tasks, and not only stuff that interest you, you’ll have a wide range of words and context to pull from. Reading which Steve encourages a lot is super helpful especially w/ audio

I agree with you that B2 is already fluent. Because with B2 (completed) you can communicate freely and about anything, maybe some grammatical mistakes and of course accent but it's always understandable. But the problem is, how to know if you are B2? or C1? For instance, when I moved to Germany years ago, I finished C1 level in an institute and now I realize that my level back them was actually middle-B2. And I even managed to pass the Goethe certificate (because it's mostly practice). I often struggle to put a category in my language skills

@tullioliuzzo5887

4 жыл бұрын

I recommend you language level test in internet.There are a lot of language level test that you can find and give you a general idea of your level.

@barrybookmaker7433

2 жыл бұрын

It doesn’t matter , either you know basis or you know language enough to communicate or you are master in the language . Simple

2 жыл бұрын

C's have an accent also

I've just reached B1 in my target language. I don't feel anywhere near 'fluent' yet. I need to improve my verbal comprehension and speaking ability. My reading and writing skills are relatively higher.

@Thelinguist

4 жыл бұрын

B2 is my minimum to feel fluent but even that is hard to define. But it certainly isn't B1.

@user-jy9qm8zx7h

2 жыл бұрын

@@Thelinguist I have a question about living language levels coplete eddition

I agree with this video 100%! I think people keep getting caught up in being able to master these languages but as a polyglot who grew up speaking 5 languages I can say that I've only ever mastered English this means I can read all levels of books, write blogs etc, speak and understand English, however I speak Filipino, Cebuano, and Taiwanese on a daily basis with family, friends, and at work. I could write letters or notes in Filipino if I wanted to but my brain would just hurt. I have never written in Cebuano or Taiwanese ever in my life but these are languages I speak at home. Mandarin I consider myself an upper intermediate because I learned that in school but don't really speak or write on a daily basis, however if you left me alone in Taiwan or the big cities of China I'd be able to find my way back to my hotel speaking Mandarin or Hokkien. The thing is there is a huge percentage of people like me in my country me and my family and friends speak the same number of languages on a daily basis and we don't care so long as the person we are talking to could understand what we are saying. I'm using lingq to learn my portuguese and I'm understanding more and more each day :)

I love Steve's approach, he has taught me how to enjoy the languages I study so much more!

I definitely seek perfection when learning a language, but by no means do I find it vital to survival or my happiness with my ability in that language. If I can get my point across on whatever topic I want, I consider myself at least conversational, if not fluent.

Most "native" speakers tend to have mediocre command of their language as well, as a function of the gap between regional vernaculars and class -based registers vs. the standard literary language (SLL) used in institutional contexts in their particular countries. This varies from country to country depending on the penetration by SLLs across space and classes. The problem with second-language learners is that they tend to learn a neutral version of the SLL, and so find themselves at odd with the actual experiences of most native speakers. For example, many people who speak English as a second language find it easier to understand other speakers of English as a second language than native speakers because the latter tend to pepper their speech with many idioms and idiosyncrasies.

@pauloradeck1396

4 жыл бұрын

You're right I think the same in Brazil where I live exist a lot of regional accents and idioms sometimes it is difficult to Portuguese speaker understand regionals differences

Steve... thanks to you I am not perfectionist anymore.. and I do not waste my time and effort on something, I simply enjoy moving forward and doing as much as I can. THANKS!

Agree entirely with your views here. One of the sad things about formal language instruction at school is that it gives people the idea that everything must be judged as right or wrong, as if one was living one's life as an ongoing examination (which sounds like hell in my opinion). People become obsessed by trivia. (Oh dear I just realize that I used the old-fashioned 'one' as you used わたくし!) Lighten up, folks!

Think you are amazing, sir. I want better fluency in Portuguese: I'm at an A2-B1 in listening and speaking, and a B2-C1 level in reading and writing. But I only know one foreign language well. Need to work more on listening. One of my Brazilian friends on Skype said I'm already fluent! :) Happy about that.

Benny Lewis is on the same "page" as you are Steve! Fluency is a matter of degree, I always want to speak so people who a native to the language that I am learning can understand me. I will still strive for "full" fluency!!

Made me think of when the band Metallica did a collaboration with the San Francisco symphony orchestra. The trained musicians in the orchestra would be telling the guys in the band, that the band's songs were actually in such and such a modal progression and all this technical stuff. And the guys in the band would say - we had no idea man, we just play

@Islaras

7 жыл бұрын

Chris Nichols interesting!

I completely agree, great explanation

I am really not convinced that mastery and fluency are inherently indicative of one another. Children have tons of linguistic acquisition in their future. However, I consider them fluent speakers of their native language even when they are very young (even by eight years of age). Likewise, I had only had two years of high school Spanish, but I was able to speak to so many native speakers and everyone was very impressed because the words really did flow well, and I had a very good level of lexical and grammatical mastery. You may now being thinking, "Ah, there it is...He had good grammatical mastery, but that is really not it either. I knew a Dutch guy in graduate school very well, and then one day, I find that he speaks German quite well. He had wonderful pronunciation and his vocabulary was understandably quite good, and ultimately, his fluency was excellent. I was highly impressed, and I am a seriously tough critic, but his grammatical accuracy was not so impressive. Even he said, "Ich spreche fliessende Fehler." That, of course, means, "I speak fluent mistakes." This statement was, in point of fact. true. His endings were off to the level of being high frequency errors but because his pronunciation and fluency were so great,I did not mind at all. Normally, it is like nails on a chalkboard for me to have to sit and listen to a speaker with a high frequency of mistakes. In his case, he was super fluent and sounded great. Ultimately, the verbal flow and pronunciation superseded his grammatical mastery, which earned him a ranking of fluency in my book. Consider how many Americans have atrocious grammar, but they are all still considered fluent. Yeah, I really do not think fluency and mastery are synonymous. There are also plenty of examples of individuals who score very well on exams but cannot speak to save their lives. Yeah, they are definitely not fluent, and it really does not matter how advanced they are on an exam because the proof is in the verbal pudding. :o)

I agree that the most important thing in the end is communication. I know a couple of people here in Beijing who have lived here for a couple years, never formally studied Chinese but have Chinese boyfriends/girlfriends/colleagues and therefore are able to communicate very effectively in the language even though their tones might be wack occasionally or their sentence structure isn't always on point (due to lack of actual study) but in the end communication is achieved

Thank you good man...!!! You are my angel...after your advices I achieve my goal....thank you so much.....God bless you...

@Thelinguist

5 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it. Keep it up! I am not stopping soon either.

My definition of 'fluency' is when a non native speaker can talk about a topic of their interest for a period of 30 mins. without feeling 'stuck' or at a 'complete loss of words' ...I've learned this thru experience in both learning and in teaching a second language.....Steve, you and I share many observations about language learning.

Thank you for the great tip.I think i am b2 in english.I moslty don' t use the language but i understand it all when am around the native speakers.

You've got a great outlook :)

Best wishes from Poland 😁

I´m quite simple-minded when it comes to fluency. If you can express yourself without major grammatical errors, not constantly looking for words, and able to hold conversations without other people having to second-guess what you´re trying to convey, then you´re fluent. I don´t care whether you´re not able to read incredibly fast, or whether you can write academic papers or bestsellers. If you´re able to function within a foreign culture, on a conversational level, then you´re good to go. I had the strictest English teacher in my school who constantly checked and corrected our articulation. I hated not being able to intergrate "smart words" into my writing because it neither felt natural nor was it easy for me. It was only later that I realised it was fine not to sound like a "professor" - native speakers often sound "worse" than learners anyway. I ignore anyone who ignorantly thinks only C2 can be considered "fluent".

make 90 days polish challenge next time. Trzymam kciuki !!! = I keep my fingers crossed !!! Now im making german 90 challenge but im listenig to your motivating attitude. Greetings from yout polish fan living in cologne in Germany

I am enjoying it very much Steve!!! Thank you as always!!! There is just one main thing which bother me and it s time!!! If a day were consist of 36 hours instead of 24)))) it ll be very times better for me and for you my dear friend!!!)))) but we have what we have and let us just keep doing this wonderful and not often easy job!!! I am from Moscow studying English for about 2 and harf years!!! Thank you!!!

@vitoralmeida9634

3 жыл бұрын

Hey, i know it's not my business but I read your comment here and once a great man said " lack of time is lack of priorities" maybe it can be your case, i hope it can help you as well as it helped me !!!

@mycats.4698

3 жыл бұрын

@@vitoralmeida9634 thank you Sir! That s a great advice! I m still learning but my life has completely changed! I d met my wife who is a foreigner and now I m waiting for the visa to begin my new life! Have a great.day there and thanks for your comment!

@vitoralmeida9634

3 жыл бұрын

@@mycats.4698 that's really good to know !!! All the best for you too !!

the world of languages is amazing you can find out a lot about how your own brain works and how great achievment of evolution are languages

I agree with you completely. Communication is the ultimate goal. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try to speak as well as you possibly can, but little things like the difference between わたくし and わたし shouldn't really matter as long as the meaning gets across.

I just completed a Swedish proficiency test, B2/C1 baby woo And yea I can converse and read in almost all aspects (although a little slower sometimes) so fluency is just how much you want to be fluent, really.

This is interesting I appreciate this. I’m good enough at French where I never have to use English and can communicate super smooth and fine, joke around, all of it. But I know there’s a bunch of things I miss especially when watching tv and the news, and big books with big words sometimes are hard for me, but I feel very fluent even tho I’m not as good at English, so I never knew how to rate myself

i agree

You have a much better memory than I! I am also working on Korean and have studied at least 36 other Languages (because Language Identification is very important to me - even if I can't actually speak the language). I have studied Korean for about 50+ hours and have only learned a few words. However, I am determined to learn Korean. Korean is difficult because the Vocabulary is quite different from English (my first Language in This Life - of course, I am a HINDU and believe in reincarnation - Kali-Shiva59) and pronunciation of the alphabet is quite tricky. First EIGHT Primary Languages I Have Studied: Avarsky (Маг1арул мац1), Russian, Kartuli ena (Georgian), Greek (Working on Classical and Modern), Hindi, Anuhazi, Korean, and German. I listed Avarsky first because I do find it the most Intriguing Language of All, even though I can only find a little information on it. There are about 1 MILLION speakers of Avarsky in mainly S.W. Respublica Dagestan Russia, Чародинский Район or Район 28 ( A Район is the same as a County in Ontario, Canada). I do have 53+ languages on my You Tube Channel: " Анастасия Юрь Ева ". To make things much more challenging Avarsky has many dialects. The one in Northern Azerbaijan, Zaqatala, is quite different than the one in Dagestan, Russia. On the list of languages most commonly spoken in the World my guess is about THREE HUNDREDTH, plus or minus 50 with 80% CONFIDENCE LIMITS. I cannot find a website , and have not found a Book yet in order to confirm this. Only the First 100 languages are listed in order of commonality spoken in the WORLD.

i agree with your definition of fluency because speaking reading and understanding are three different skills. I think its possible that someone is fluent in understanding and a level lower in speaking or writing.

@hansdejong8733

7 жыл бұрын

Paweł dzwonecki Definitely true, I live in the northern part of the Netherlands and we speak a minority language (diglossia), a lot of people can understand it, but if you ask a non-native speaker (who hasn't studied the language), you'll see that they can't even make the easiest sentences, but their listening is almost fluent.

That's exactly how I think !

Nice topic! I think that the pronunciation is important but it isn't everything at all! For me, to get fluent is be understanding for native people in that target language. And to be fluent, you don't have to have a 100% level in pronunciation (of course you have to have at least an intermediate level on it to avoid any misunderstanding). And about the Intermediate level can be considerated fluent: I think so! You can have an mediocre vocabulary but have a good conversational level in that language.

Я полностью согласен со Стивом, что самое главное двигаться вперед и не особо заморачиваться по поводу разного рода особенностей ...как говорил другой Стивен , а именно Крашен - интересный и понятный контент приближает нас к цели. Грамматика вторична...главное двигаться вперед потихоньку.

Hello Steve, I enjoy your work in language learning, could you please clarify something for me? I have watched one of your videos some time ago and you said that you cherish and look after meaningful conversations in a language and that you do appreciate languages taking time to be learned... it's not that I disagree that intermediate is just fine, but I don't think meaningful conversations can be achieved in this level... Please, let me know about your answer!

Once I got to a good intermediate level of Japanese I just kind of stopped caring about labels and measurements. Now I just spend my time chatting with my Japanese friends, watching youtube videos, reading articles, and playing games; studying words here and there that I encounter that I don't know, but generally just enjoying my time with the language. It was really freeing.

Я думаю тоже

I agree - I also think the word fluency is in some cases too easily used and then in other cases also overly valued as a necessity. The words proficient and intermediate ought to be used and valued more.

Steve is such a hottie...I'm sorry :)

Living language language advanced means C1 Thank you

I consider basic ability to express most ideas w/o much thinking to be the beginning of fluency. So I consider Pre-Intermediate to be the level of basic fluency not Upper Intermediate (B2). Those CEFR levels refer to knowledge and the combination of skills. I make my students speak fluently with very limited knowledge. Knowledge at A2 is sufficient.

@essennagerry

7 жыл бұрын

EXACTLY! I could get a headache out of all the thoughts I've had on fluency and what specific level it could be. But to me, fluency could be achieved in different mediocre levels. A good A2 level could let you "fool" people you're fluent in the language. To me A2 to B2 is fluent, ifffff YOU are fluently exercising them, so to say, but under that it's too little to be called fluent and over that it's a higher level that could use a separate word, although of course it's not not fluent. So basically... to communicate about levels of fluency we should just use the A1-C2 system or a similar, internationally recognied one and forget about the word "fluent" alltogether, hahah, that'll serve the purpose better. Then we can further describe our abilities like "I'm a solid B1 for sure, but Idk if I'd pass a B2 yet" or "I'm an excellent A2 on paper, but I'm not a confident speaker", etc.

@leejimmy90

17 күн бұрын

I disagree that saying knowledge at A2 is sufficient. To have a conversation with other people effectively (especially longer one), it requires a good listening comprehension skill, which means a lot of vocabulary. A2 is not enough for this and may interfere a lot with the conversation. Level B2 is decent for this

Hi, Steve. I have a question about the level of your Japanese. Can you comprehend movies in Japanese? Like some of Kurosawa's classics.

Je comprends totalement! Et person je crois que ça, ça c'est le problème avec les cours des langues à l'école. On apprend à nous focuser uniquement sur la perfectionnement de la grammaire, et on apprend pas comment utiliser une langue dans la vraie vie. Je crois que parler couramment une langue, c'est avoir la capacité de communiquer efficacement aux gens. Bien sûr que la grammaire et des autres petits trucs d'une langue sont également importants, mais pour que les gens puisse comprennent quelqu'un, ce sont pas les choses les plus importantes... Merci pour cette vidéo lingosteve!

@minjosof

2 жыл бұрын

perso* xd

I would consider myself intermediate in Spanish, though probably since I have given very little attention to my spanish over the past 6 months it is probably more comparable to a beginner level. If I studied more intensely, I would regain my intermediate level of Spanish and possibly even push the boundaries into more fluent levels. What kind of made me realize this was the other day when I was at work, I work at a home improvement store. This guest comes in not knowing a lick of English. I try very hard to understand what he is saying. The most I get out of it is that he is wanting something for his roof, and that it is a sheet of something. I tried whipping out my phone trying to get him to type or speak his thoughts in spanish into the translator. He would not do it. After struggling to communicate with the guy, I have to call over my manager who does speak spanish just so we can get this guy what he wants. He seemed to be speaking a central american dialect of spanish that is very difficult for me to understand. Even my mexican manager seemed to be having a bit of trouble with him. If I would have been speaking to him when I was studying spanish more intensely, then perhaps I would have had a better chance of communicating effectively with him.

@dieguitomartinez4579

7 жыл бұрын

you can practice Spanish with me my skype is: diegopipe11 I'm native speaker. I want also practice English.

@64imma

7 жыл бұрын

Diego Felipe Martinez Rincon I just added you. My name is theorange41

Steve, great video. My two cents: I try to steer clear of the term fluency. There's just too much emotional tied up in it. I prefer to use the term "conversational." This is open to one's personal opinion and judgment. Does one have to be able to read the Divine Comedy in Italian, or comparable work in another language, to be considered fluent? No. That's ridiculous. Plenty of native American English speakers can't really read Shakespeare and get much out of it. Are they not fluent? Of course they are. So thank you for pushing this idea that fluency doesn't mean perfection.

@Thelinguist

7 жыл бұрын

Conversational is not fluent. It is a much lower level. It doesn't imply the ability to understand and express oneself on a wide variety of subjects, including serious subjects.

Hey, Steve, I'm curious, do you feel that you are C1 or higher in any of your foreign languages? I know you have studied several languages, and I know getting from B2 to C1 feels impossible. Do you believe you have reached C1 yet in a language? Or are you happy with B2? I think for a couple of languages, I want to be a B2 level in, but I hope one day, to reach a level of C1.

@Thelinguist

6 жыл бұрын

I am probably C1 in Japanese and French and close to that level in Mandarin. In any case I could easily get to that level in both Mandarin and Spanish. Once you’re at B2, you are coasting. You can just enjoy your reading and listening and speaking and your language should just gradually improve. Don’t be impatient.

@CodyCannon11

6 жыл бұрын

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Awesome. Thank you for the response, I will keep that in mind as I progess through my language journey. Thank you, Steve!

@mariasoto1837

Жыл бұрын

@@Thelinguist Quelle sont vôtre recommendations pour avancer en Française de B2 à C1? Est-ce juste pour pratiquer ce qui manquait? What are your recommendations to advance in French from B2 to C1? Is it just to practice what was missing?

How can you evaluate the level of languages for those who learn foreign languages without the certificate of examination?

how long does it take to reach a c2 level in english by listening and reading?

Do you know if you will study a semitic language next? :)

I am a portuguese guy , but I don' know for certain my level. If I can understand all of Steve's videos ( all the words and sentences) and I feel I could say everything he is saying ( maybe with a grammar error here and there) what level of english do you think I have?

@LordAus123

Ай бұрын

You appear to be around a high b1/low b2 level. Of course, we can’t know without an evaluation. You clearly have studied english and know a decent range of vocabulary but your sentence structure is distinctly non-English. You can communicate effectively and with some level of precision and control of register/tone.

B2 is considered fluent, depending on your particular major, you learn on it more vocabulary

Hello Steve, I am From Brazil and I would say that I understand 80%~90% about this video without subtitles, so I could say than I fluent? Because the communication is possible right ? Thanks 🇧🇷🇬🇧🇨🇦🇺🇸🇯🇵

@es4666

4 жыл бұрын

Alexander Balthazar his English was easy so you should be able to understand all of it.

the main reason I want to become fluent is because I want that when I have kids,i can have them grow as bilinguals. I'm currently intermediate but I don't think it is enough.

@essennagerry

7 жыл бұрын

You should definitely consider living for some time in the country where they speak your language of interest. If I were you, I'd get to a solid, and I mean SOLID B1 level and then live in said country at least for a year. That'll boost you up SO MUCH. After that, when you return home, you won't have it too hard getting to a native-like level. Because of your experience with the language in the country (after already having a B1 level) you'll develop not only your skills, but a really nice feel for the language. It'll be enough for you to get to whatever level you want to on your own after that. Reading books, watchig movies, talking to friends and if you're into writing - that as well. You'll seriously rock the language. But Idk I'm just giving you an idea - I don't know your situation nor your personality, I'm not trying to convince you to do that, haha, just pointing out it's worth the thought if you haven't considered it yet. :) I also want to raise my future kids with more than one language.

@raza838

7 жыл бұрын

essennagerry thanks for the awesome comment. However, I believe I'm B2 or B2.5 spanish right now. I currently live in Florida (highly populated with Hispanics) and I have to speak Spanish almost all day. Most of my friends don't speak English, so I think this is as close as immersion that I'll get without having to travel. (Don't have the money) thanks again!

@essennagerry

7 жыл бұрын

Graham c Oh, sorry, I kinda translated intermediate in a wrong way, that's why I went on like that, haha. xD I'm glad you're so well off with Spanish, I wish you all the best in your language learning journey! :)

Could you please tell me how long it takes to get to b2 level if I'm already done with B1 english?

What is considered intermediate? Being able to understand the news, able to use your target language on the job, and converse with native speakers on a wide variety of topics?

Quick question: I noticed that you mention the fact that you have 10,000 - 30,000 words in Korean after a few months. How do you memorize so many words in such a short amount of time? I've been doing French on LingQ for about 3 months now and I still only have 2000 or so known words because some words, I barely ever see again and when I do, I forget what it means. I have A LOT of LingQ's, but none of them are being converted to known vocab to add to my word count because I keep forgetting them...

@Thelinguist

7 жыл бұрын

I read a lot and LingQ a lot. I regularly come across yellow words that I now know and then I move them to known. An even bigger number of known words acquired are those that I do not need to LingQ because I now know them. The key is to do a lot of reading. I have read over 300,000 words in Korean, 40, 000 in the last month.

@dieguitomartinez4579

7 жыл бұрын

I need any person for practice my English. can you Steve? my skype ID is: diegopipe11

@essennagerry

7 жыл бұрын

Steve, how do you know how many words you've read - how do you count that?

@Thelinguist

7 жыл бұрын

LingQ counts it for me

@essennagerry

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I'll check it out. :)

Would you say that you are a B1 or B2 in Mandarin Chinese?

@Thelinguist

7 жыл бұрын

Between B2 and C1 I would guess.

I'm hovering between A2 and B1 in Spanish. Natuve speakers think I do well, but clearly not a native speaker. English only speakers think I'm fluent. I tell them I'm very close to being conversational, and they don't understand

Regarding your comment on わたくし and わたし, in my experience I didn't really hear わたくし very often at all while studying abroad in Tokyo. However, I didn't really hear keigo very often besides sometimes when i would go shopping, and it's not like the clerks talked about themselves to me lol. On top of that, not every clerk used keigo, some just used the teinei form instead. So maybe that could help explain why those in the comments of your Japanese videos say they have never heard it.

Ok so at what level would you consider someone to be a polyglot? Let’s say what if someone is native in 1 language and B2 in 2 languages and C1 in one other language? Would someone need to be at a C1 or C2 level to be considered a polyglot?

@Thelinguist

3 ай бұрын

B2 minimum

Uhh so if intermediate level can be considered fluent I'm still on beginner level then at speaking (A2). I thought I was an intermediate 😔

só, i'm fluency in english, because i'm in b2 level, very cool

@coasternut3091

2 жыл бұрын

I understand you fine. To me, if you understand and are understood, you're pretty well fluent

Hi Steve how are you doing? I'm an student of English for a long time but I don't achieve my goal yet such as Speaker and writer like a Native. I have listen a lot of online radios a as 77WABC player.listenlive.co/25211/en/show/11 I'm sorry for my mistakes

Yes but your standard or wished standard and fluency might not be the same

no se que hago aquí sí yo hablo español, debería estar practicando inglés ;v

I'm from Poland, have a nice day whenever you read the comment :*

don't claim that you a polyglot just declare that you're a person who is fascinated in learning languages

I also found strange when you said わたくし in other videos. You're the first person I heard this word from. I'm not even intermediate by the way. But maybe its more like an old word that people used in the 90s or so, but they doesn't use it that much nowadays anymore?

@TheHakon98

7 жыл бұрын

Linck192 its the formal of watashi

@mandarinjourneyswithnanno

2 жыл бұрын

Imagine being a learner and judging someone who is already fluents Japanese. You sir used to have a serious case of the dunning Kruger effect.

@Linck192

2 жыл бұрын

@@mandarinjourneyswithnanno Of course I had the dunning kruger effect, that's only natural, but I don't think myself from 4 years ago was judging him, I was just asking a question

Languages without standardized forms can't even have advanced level proficiencies because they imply professional use, but I'd still consider the natives fluent.

Fluency is entirely subjective. It's possible for a person to hold a conversation and speak "fluently" (i.e. without pausing to search for words) at any level - A2, B1, and B2 speakers just do so with limited vocabulary. I am a native English speaker, but I tend to speak and write without complex, unusual, or flowery words, and I recently tested myself on the CEFR scale in English and apparently I test at a C1 level. Does that mean I'm not "fluent" in my native language? Of course not. Ernest Hemingway was known for his use of simple vocabulary - he used only 5,000 words in his novels and stories - yet he is considered a master of English. To "get by" while traveling, B1 is more than enough. B2 is good if you want to really understand people.

@mattreggie4481

Ай бұрын

Amen to that. Plus, you can have a degree in linguistics, or philology and therefore think that you are a "proficient user" of a certain language. Until the day you get tested by someone who wants to hire a "linguist" and will make you take a test, full of language, grammar etc. mistakes (obviously designed by themselves, a person, who has never had anything to do with LEARNING languages), which is aimed at proving to you that you are a B2 user (at best) of your mother tongue, not to mention the languages you have learned later on (those would be at the level of A - 5 (I know that such level of language proficiency doesn't even exist, but the non - linguist always knows better). I had a situation like that just yesterday.

Being intermediate ("mediocre, plenty of mistakes, can communicate if given enough opportunity to get warmed up"), or B1, is not fluency. The statement contradicts itself. I don't think this is a good way to think. And the title battle is such a waist of energy. With respect, to Steve and to anyone else, avoid resting on your laurels by changing the definition of 'fluency', and get to intense studying to actually reach your goal of fluency. You'll be much happier about it when you do reach this goal. I think that considering yourself fluent is a recipe for, in reality, not becoming fluent; and that taking a good honest look at your skills is actually motivating to put in more work.

@rodolfolg8565

7 жыл бұрын

Many people like you always say B1 or B2 is not good and after reach only a basic level(A1 or A2 ) therefore in my opinion each people is free to say I am fluent in a language only at an elementary level too.

@KevJYT

7 жыл бұрын

I never said B1 and B2 aren't good.

@taino20

7 жыл бұрын

I am a teacher of ESL. Some students you could say function at a C1 level, yet they have a somewhat difficult time to communicate, because they don't want to make a mistake. But other students function at a B1 or B2 level and communicate effortlessly, and though they make mistakes, their meaning is always very clear.

@KevJYT

7 жыл бұрын

taino2039 - C1, by definition, implies ease in spoken communication. europass.cedefop.europa.eu/sites/default/files/cefr-en.pdf

@Thelinguist

7 жыл бұрын

So does B2

You seem to be a master of trades type of guy. You have a lot under belt but you have not mastered the details of all your skills. This is not about learning what's practical either; learning this many languages is already very impractical. Learners need to set there own standards to be realistic and personalized for what the learner wants.

@essennagerry

7 жыл бұрын

I don't think this is a problem, just a matter of preference. (Unless it's a matter of need.) I for instance care about eloquency quite a lot and I want to achieve the level of a well educated and well spoken native speaker in every language that I want to learn. Buuuuuut I want to learn a lot of languages. And I don't want to give either of those up. So I guess I'll strive for such a level in some languages and B1, maaaaybe B2 the others. Why not? Who's to say that's a bad thing? Some people care about eloquency and they may sacrifice the number of languages they learn and invest that spare time and energy in bringing them to a "well educated native" level. Some people care about many languages and don't want to sacrifice any, so they sacrifice those last steps of refining their skills and polishing themselves as master debate partners and novel writers. Nothing better or worse about either choices, it's just preference.

@christopherchin1038

5 жыл бұрын

well if he wants to engage in a variety of different cultures and have conversations with people from different countries i would say it is very practical.

i disagree ...only after completing C1 minimum can you call yourself fluent...

@Narciss99

7 жыл бұрын

Hans De Jong no they are not. I reached B2 German in 2 months and i have 0 background of german and did not live or grow up in a german background. B2 is easy to achieve. i would consider everything under B2 as beginner, its only in B2 can you start to have real conversations about real topics like economics politics etc and start forming your identity in that language. B2 is far from fluent, end of C1 and if your good then ill say you can call yourself fluent

@edresmn7869

7 жыл бұрын

I am learning German. May I know how you reached that level in 2 months?

@Narciss99

7 жыл бұрын

Edres Mn german is my 11th language so im used to learning languages quickly and i guess knowing russian grammar helped in studying german grammar and compared to other languages i speak like chinese mandarin etc i think german is easy. so far i rate russian as the hardest language to be fluent in because of its horrible grammar. German B2 is easy.

@cahernandeza

7 жыл бұрын

Congratulations.

@rodolfolg8565

7 жыл бұрын

+Jupiter Light Ahhahahah you are ridiculus you can' t reach at B2 in a difficult language like German in only months ..many people reach to it in 5 o 4 years you are like many people that want to brag ability