What do you consider fluent/bilingual?

Question

Hey guys...my question is pretty simple to ask, but a little hard to define. What do you consider the meaning of being fluent or being bilingual?

I have been living in Honduras the last 6 months and speak spanish pretty well. Some of my friends tell me I'm fluent because I can understand and speak the language. However, I don't feel fluent. There's still so much I have to learn, and certain words I don't know yet. My skill level is that I can understand everything when I'm having a one-on-one conversation, and I understand most everything when there's a group of people. I can also speak the language very well, but still mix up some conjugations and stuff every once in a while.

My friends also call me bilingual because I converse and use spanish just as much as I use English on a day-to-day basis. Others tend to say I'm a lot farther than how I feel I am.

So what do you consider being fluent or bilingual means?

Answer

I consider being fluent in a language knowing enough of the language to be able to get by with basic everyday conversations (at lease being fluent in a second language).  And being bilingual is being able to speak two languages.

Answer

I consider being fluent in a foreign language means you can speak the language very well, have no problems having conversation with people and using the language in the same way as your mother tongue and in my opinion being bilingual means you learn two languages equally, when you are growing up, so not one of them is a 'second' or foreign language. But I could be wrong, it's just my opinion. :-)

What do you consider fluent/bilingual?

Answers (2)