Fluency in Language – Going Beyond the Dictionary

Guest post by Luke Rudge

Let’s set the scene: you’ve been studying a language for a few years now. You’ve got all the books to teach yourself, several dictionaries – including that one completely in the target language – and enough written resources to make even the most hardened of grammarians do a double-take. You eat, sleep and breathe the language you are learning, and your proficiency exams are a walk in the park!

Now let’s take you out to a country where, luckily, there just so happens to be a large proportion of people speaking that language you’ve been learning. But what’s this? Native speakers are having a hard time understanding your tone and you can’t quite pick up the words that they themselves are uttering. You ask for clarification and repetition, as it says to do in all of those books, but it’s just not sinking in. They know immediately that you’re not a native speaker, despite your best efforts to learn the language inside-out.

So what went wrong?!

The message of this short yet common situation comes from a distinction that is frequently forgotten: the difference between knowledge and fluency. In other words, it’s one thing to know every sentence construction possible in a language, but it’s something else to know how to adapt these constructions depending on a multitude of sociolinguistic factors.

Don’t let this message dissuade you, though. Language learning takes time and patience, but fluency can be increased in a variety of ways, some of which are surprisingly easy to do. This post will take a look at four ways in which you can improve your fluency, ensuring you can mingle with the natives in no time!

When saying nothing is better than saying something

It’s nice to be able to say what you want, and even more so when you can do it in more than one language. However, fluency doesn’t just depend on how many words you know and how fast you can string a sentence together. To exemplify this, take a look at this video that was televised in Japan (don’t worry if you don’t understand what’s going on):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cbWUxTHheg

Can you hear how the presenters are leading conversation on with an “nn” sound, and how the audience is reacting by evoking an “eeeh” sound with rising intonation? These are very much Japanese things to do in conversation; a short “nn” would be the equivalent of an English “yeah,” whereas a longer “nn” would be like saying “nah.” As for “eeeh,” this would be expressed when shocked or surprised by something, again, increasing in length and pitch to indicate the level of shock.

We can also look at how you can pause ‘in French,’ exemplifed in this short interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS4tMPQErHM

To buy some time when collecting your thoughts and searching for le mot juste in French, you can use some of the sounds and words used in this clip (“euh,” “donc,” “ben,” etc.), extend the vowel leading into the next word, or even just make a “pfft” noise mid-sentence! Believe me, pausing in French is a big part of the language; I’ve had hours of lessons devoted on how to pause correctly! Even if you know what to say, allowing for some ‘pause time’ will give you a real air of fluency.

Throw yourself into some media

Despite being a self-confessed lingua-geek, I don’t get the chance to interact with native speakers as often as I would like. However, that doesn’t stop me from going into the big wide world – online or otherwise – and finding something that I can sink my teeth into. For instance, if I’m running late one morning, I might stick on a Japanese news bulletin in the background while I’m getting ready, or pick up a Spanish newspaper on my way into work. I could also browse the myriad of videos and radio stations online to find some French music and then try my best to understand the song, alongside trying not to sing along out of tune…

Now, I’m not implying that the news bulletin, the newspaper or the song that I found were things that I understood in their entirety. What they do, and have done for years, is provide me with exposure to a language in a real context. The news bulletin could give my listening skills a chance to improve on picking up how to best use the phrase だから (“dakara”) in a sentence; the newspaper could introduce me to the word lobenswert in a context that I may have not seen before; the music could help me to understand what it means to have du pain sur la planche in a figurative context (as well as exercising my restraint to not sing poorly in public).

Picking up a phrase, half a sentence, or even a word in an entire section of text will give you more confidence in fluency, because you’ll be adapting your skills to listen to and read media that native speakers use daily. You won’t understand everything immediately and flawlessly, but the more you do it, the more you’ll pick up.

Expand your lingo beyond the dictionary

It’s unlikely that you’re learning a language purely by reading a dictionary every evening. Despite being an indispensable tool in moments of linguistic confusion, however, they shouldn’t be relied on for every utterance. To increase your fluency, why not consider looking at some idiomatic phrases?

English is full of idioms that many take for granted. They usually jump off the page, and in certain contexts they can be worth their weight in gold, so much so that you can really go to town with them if you like (Pop Quiz: did you spot all the idioms?) but it’s not just in English that you’ll find them. In Spanish, you can be forgiven for conjugating a verb incorrectly, because after all, “él que tiene boca se equivoca” (he who has a mouth makes mistakes).

Similarly, you could also check out the slang used in your language. Be warned, however; slang tends to be riskier to learn than idioms, as these words carry a less obvious meaning and, if used in the wrong contexts, could have disastrous consequences. Make sure you get them checked out by a trustworthy native speaker first of all, or in a group of native speakers who won’t take immediate offence if you come across as unintentionally rude!

Become a culture copycat

A language and its related culture are closely intertwined, so much so that there have been debates for decades as to how exactly they interact with one another. No matter which way the influence falls, observing and immersing yourself in a different culture can really bring your fluency up. In fact, the points mentioned above could form part of this argument, but there are other aspects to look at, too. For instance, many of the French speak of “Métro – Boulot – Dodo.” While this has been created with rhyming and brevity in mind, it’s also an inventive method of describing the daily, repetitive lifestyle of many urban French citizens (“catch the underground train, go to work, go to bed, repeat”). This is similar to the English “Eat, Drink, Sleep” slogan, but not for its inherent meaning (the English phrase indicating some kind of obsession, whereas the French phrase is describing and almost desperate, draining repetition). Instead, they are similar because you would not find either of these phrases in a dictionary, but you would definitely hear them through the media, through friends, in passing, etc. It’s these little gems that you can throw into your foreign language conversations to bulk up your linguistic ammunition and really impress native speakers.

Keep in mind that culture extends beyond language and moves into the broader realm of communication. Have you considered listening to some traditional music from the countries of the languages that you’re learning? Do they have any artists that are held in high regard, any dances that are popular or even any films that are a must-see before heading to your chosen country?

Remember that it’s not mandatory to know these things before learning a language or even visiting a country. Nevertheless, taking a bit of time to push yourself a little further, learn things that may not necessarily be in a textbook, and embracing a different culture to even a small degree will allow you to truly feel more at home in a place where, sometimes, a language barrier can make you feel more lost than ever.

About Luke Rudge

Luke is a linguistics graduate and Teacher of Languages in Bristol, UK. His interests range from the inner-workings of languages to the greater aspects of different cultures. He can also be found over at his blog: colourlessgreenlinguistics.wordpress.com

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