Oh!!! I can't speak English!

Fluency. This was the subject appearing in two conversations on the same day with a few hours in between. The first was a seven year old telling me the difficulties of moving into a new country. Visiting is fine, but going to school might be a problem as she will not able to speak like a native speaker. The second was a grown up telling me he is not fluent in English.

The surprising factor in both the conversations was the same. The speakers were talking to me in English and telling me they are not fluent in English. If you ask me, they are able to communicate very well. They might not be using award winning prose but it was well constructed English barring a few misgivings. Then why do people think they are not fluent?

My take on this matter is simple. As long as you can communicate to the other person effectively, there is nothing to worry. If you still consider this being insufficient, you might want to check out others have to say about fluency. By others, I mean, wikipedia.... 

Tags: Musings,Fluent,English

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Comments

  1. Good thought to ponder. I think its because of the richness of the language used by English media, book writers etc etc creates the pressure to think so !

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