Anyone fluent in another Language?

Question

When you have learnt and you are "fluent"..

Do you still have to think of the words...

i mean.... Does it come to you as easy as your first language...?

Or is it always an effort to speak it?

And also... if you are fluent in 2+... what language do you *think* in...?

Ugh this makes no sense as i'm tired... but hopefully you get the idea...

Answer 1

I think I am pretty fluent in English, which for me is another language. Even though I rarely speak it it is not a problem for me to remember the words (except if I am in a very strong emotional state, but this is rare). I don't have to think in my language and then translate into English. It flows almost as naturally as my mother tongue. I am less fluent in the other languages I speak, but I usually think in my own language, sometimes, but rarely, I dream in English or in another language. I think in English only when I need to use it a lot (maybe if I need to write a paper or something).
What a professor in psychology once thought me is that we store languages in different areas of the brain. In fact if a person has an ictus she might no longer be able to speak her language, but she can still speak the others she has learnt.

Answer 2

Nice question.
I am a spanish (A language) native speaker, and I speak fluently japanese (B language). And yes, you're right, when you are fluent in a language different from your first one, you don't have to think of the words, they just come to you naturally. The best way of becoming fluent is thinking in the language you're trying to master. This is, all the time. It doesn't matter if you feel silly, or if everyone else thinks your'e mad.

You can also date someone from other country, who doesn't speak at all your mother language. That way, you force yourself to speak in the B language... unless you like walking down the street with a dictionary under your arm...

Answer 3

I usually claim to be fluent in French. No, it's not as easy as English--I don't know if it's an effort exactly but I have fewer choices in what I say--like if I want to express thought X, I might know 15 ways to say it in English but only 3 in French, and the one I choose might not be the best of the three, much less the best of the 15 ways there actually are.

I think in English unless I'm in a French conversation or watching tv or reading in French. If I'm writing in French I think I usually still think more in English and translate.

I also speak German but I'm definitely NOT fluent. In German I pretty much always have to think in English and then translate. And of the 15 ways to say something, I'll only know one, half the time, and usually get it wrong.

My husband is way more bilingual than I am, and would have a hard time telling you which language he thought of something in. (If he's just sitting around thinking--if he's in a French or English conversation he'll think in that language.) My kids seem to have a different system--they seem to usually think about school in German, me in English, skiing in French, etc. They sometimes struggle to tell me what happened at school, or they'll use German expressions translated into English when that doesn't work. (e.g. "These are the rules we have to hold on to.")

Answer 4

I would say you're fluent when you're able to get what you need to get done in that language. If you're a tourist and can converse easily and get around; if you're a businessman and can conduct busienss; if you can read most anything easily.
But fluent is not quite the same level as bilingual. (These are my definitions as a language learner and ESL teacher. I don't think there are standard definitions of fluent out there. The foreign service has its scale, universities use a test the TOEFL to determine levels).

As you increase in fluency or become bilingual, the languages eventually become interchangeable and you don't have to think of words any more than in your native language. My husband used to watch a film in English and then say " the dubbing was really good on that film" not even realizing that he had watched the original version rather than a French dubbed version. (He spent 8 years in the US and completed an MBA at a US university).

It eventually will become as easy as your native language where if you think about it, there can be instances where you carefully look for words, like when you're trying to be diplomatic or in formal situations, or when you read academic texts or literature. You don't always know every word. Eventually, you can read books in the foreign language without any particular effort and the words you don't know won't be an issue anymore.

You'll think in the language you're speaking if you're really fluent and frequently exposed to both. When I lived in France and worked at the US Embassy, I shifted back and forth between the two languages and so maintained natural language in both. Now that I'm in the US, I still understand and read French fluently, but am less exposed to French and might end up using more English influenced expressions if I'm speaking or writing in French. This is simply because I don't use French as much anymore. So in that sense, I'm thinking in English. When I lived in France I spoke more French than English and probably used French expressions when I spoke English sometimes. I think it depends on the level of your usage.

When I speak German, I have a harder time going between French and German. It's easier to go between English and German since English is my mother tongue. However, I never reached the level of fluency in German that I have in French. If I were more fluent in German, this might not happen.

Language learning is a dynamic process in your native language or a foreign language since you never cease to increase your vocabulary as you add to your life experience. Languages themselves evolve with different slang and expressions, different age groups and different situations (formal and informal).

(I have a degree in Latin with a minor in German, am bilingual in French and have lots of ESL teaching experience. I lived overseas for 18 years).

Answer 5

I know exactly what you mean.
I am fluent in English, French, Italian, and enough to get by in Spanish.
When someone asks me a question in either of these languages I just automatically think in the same language that I'm being spoken to in.

Answer 6

My first language is Spanish, but I've been speaking English for so long, it's English that I think in.
Both Spanish and English come out just as easily, I have no need to think what I have to say in either language.
I learned French, and I have to think what I want to say. My spoken French is not too good, but I can understand what I read almost 100%.
I've been learning German on my own for a couple of years now. Curiously, I can speak it a little better than French, but I still have to search my memory for words.

Answer 7

I'm fluent in English & 3 dialects in Chinese. I consider Cantonese as my native tongue.

I still have to "think" of the words, and I probably always will but I don't take it as a problem. It's because there're concepts exist in one language that don't exist in another. e.g. In Fujianese, there's a distinction between "we/us" which includes the listener, and "we/us" which exclude the listener. I haven't seen such distinction exist in other languages yet.

Thoughts come in abstract concepts. They only become words later. Maybe it's because I'm a visual person, there're concepts I can only express with graphics.

I think most of you would agree that humans *think* in abstract concepts. Language is only one way of expressing ideas.

When we first learn a foreign language, we translate it to our own language so it's easier. Often, we use the written words and translation. When you reach the level of fluency, you can by-pass translating in your mother tonuge and express your ideas freely with the language of your choice.

p.s. My boyfriend is fluent in Japanese, Spanish and English. He speaks gibberish when he's drunk. No one can understnad him except his sister. (lol)

Answer 8

It seems impossible at first, but later you learn to think in the second language. It is something that comes to you as naturally as your own language. You need to read a lot, to listen, and to talk the second language as often as you can. You will discover that there are certain words or expressions that you cannot think about in your own language, but in that second language only. Silly, but true. Good luck with your studying!

Answer 9

Yes I got it! Well in my case, English is my second language, and sometimes is very difficult for me to think in English and I have some troubles when I speak. I feel a big frustration because of that.

I always think in Spanish and even though I know that my English knowledge is relatively good I don't feel comfortable using my second language.

Answer 10

OK I'm totally fluent in Portuguese, English and French.
Let me see. I had never thought about that.

Hmm, sometimes I have to think about a word, when it's something unusual. For the basic stuff it comes easily!