Sun 9 Apr 2006
Do you know the definition of the word ‘fluent’? I’m fairly certain that you do. Even if you don’t know the exact wording of the dictionary, you know the meaning. You should, anyway.
The particular meaning I’m after here is the one which applies to languages, the one you use when you say “I’m fluent in English”. For the record, here’s the definition from answers.com:
Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly.
Despite evidence to the contrary, most people I’ve met on the Internet have claimed fluency in English. Several people I’ve met in real life have claimed fluency in English and other languages. I don’t agree with them.
One of my teachers once said that if you can’t describe every single detail of the room you’re sitting in without having to get help translating, you’re not fluent. That’s a test I like. It tells me I’m far from as fluent in English as I sometimes like to think.
Let me take an example of a Norwegian word I don’t know how to translate, and I doubt many do. It appears to have no English equivalent at all. The word is “saft”.
Now, one, absolutely correct, way to translate that would be “juice”, which is the word all dictionaries I’ve seen give. But that only applies when “saft” is used in that particular context, e.g. the juice of an apple. That context is easy, but the other (in my experience more common) use is harder.
A glass of undiluted … thingy. |
There exists a certain beverage we name “saft”. Depending on the brand, it is either made from mixed fruit extracts or synthetically. It usually contains heaploads of sugar. It is concentrated, and has to be mixed with water before drinking.
No, it isn’t “lemonade”, that word is too narrow.
Diluted saft. Tasty. |
Now where did I leave my point? I’m sure I had one. Oh, wait, look, there it is:
If somebody was to put me in a room with a glass of the stuff, I would fail the fluency test. I’m not fluent in English. I suspect most people who claim to be aren’t. The word “fluent” is overused.
And it bugs me.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:53
Your example is invalid. Your not being able to name the beverage is a short-coming of the English language, not of your skills in it. You would be able to - as you have indeed in this very blogpost - describe what it is readily and effortlessly without actually naming it, since this cannot be done. Therefore, by your own example, this would be an indication that you are fluent in the language.
Your point still stands, though, and I agree. You just used a crappy example. If you want to write an article on how much people who claim English is always better than Norwegian are dead, damned, horribly wrong, though, it’ll hit the mark quite well.
April 12th, 2006 at 14:50
Effortlessly? Hardly! This took tons more effort than I like to expend.
And I also suspect there might be a word that I just don’t know, which is why I used this example. I was half hoping someone would tell me what it was. If there really isn’t one, then yeah, it is a bad example.
April 12th, 2006 at 17:17
I’ve looked around, and no, it seems there is no exact one-word-translation of the word “saft” (which, by the way, seems to be of German origin). But if you know the words “juice”, “concentrate” and “dillute” or “mix” and “water”, you can, effrotlessly, explain and describe “saft” in English.