By Robby
If you are new here please read this first.
Hello my friends from YearOfEnglish.com!
If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you’ve been following all those daily tips e-mailed to you by Aaron from Phrasemix.com (he’s the guy behind the Year of English project), and there’s also a good chance you’ve been heeding to all that advice which would have brought you closer to your goal of BECOMING FLUENT IN ENGLISH this year.
But here’s a small problem which might actually result in quite a considerable setback for your English fluency.
In the very beginning when you just committed to your goal of becoming fluent this year, the deadline for the goal was in a very distant future so you didn’t really have to worry about its completion. You just kept checking your inbox every day for a new e-mail from YearOfEnglish.com in sure knowledge that it was going to bring you another small step closer to English fluency.
Now that the year has almost ended however, you may have started wondering:
“The year is almost over, but have I become fluent in English? And after all – who’s going to tell me when I’ve become fluent?”
Well, one thing is for sure – if you haven’t been doing a whole lot in terms of your English development during the year except for checking YearOfEnglish.com e-mails occasionally and reading the related content every now and then, the chances are – you haven’t become fluent.
If, on the other hand, you’ve been engaging in a lot of practicing on a daily basis (including a lot of spoken English practice), it’s pretty hard to imagine as to why you wouldn’t have become fluent.
Here are a few sure indicators of English fluency, and if you conform to at least one of them, I’d say you can definitely consider yourself being fluent in English:
- You can maintain a conversation with another English speaker about your interests, job, studies and future plans as well as having casual small talk.
- You can talk about the same things in English you would be able to talk about in your native language (bear in mind nobody can be expected to speak in English about something you wouldn’t be able to speak in your native language!)
- You can narrate your typical daily life in English – basically you can describe what you’re doing as you’re going about your daily business as well as describing your thoughts you’re having at that particular moment in time.
Also, please notice that in order to consider yourself a fluent English speaker you DON’T HAVE TO be able to:
- Speak at great length about complicated subjects you wouldn’t even be able to talk about in your native language.
- Speak super-fast without making any mistakes (there are plenty of native English speakers who speak slowly and hesitate while thinking of the best fitting words to say!)
- Use all English grammar tenses and possess super-perfect grammar – in reality, most complicated grammar tenses aren’t even used in real life conversations ❗
Basically the point I’m trying to make is the following:
If you can communicate with another person in English in situations you typically find yourself in and you can make yourself understood, you can consider yourself being fluent in English!
But what if you’re being judged by others?
What if you encounter perfectionists telling you your English isn’t good enough and pointing out mistakes you’re making? Does that mean you’re not fluent yet?
Not at all ❗
It’s actually up to you to decide when you’ve become fluent in English, and for the most part it’s all about how confident you are ❗
Your grammar may still need a few fixes, your vocabulary may not be as rich as that of some other non-native English speaker, but if you just tell yourself: “That’s it, now I’m a fluent English speaker and I can achieve great things in life with my English!” then it’s all that matters!
You’ll keep improving your English throughout your life as you advance in your studies and career, and most importantly – you can’t wait on some point in time in the future when you’ve become 100% fluent in English to start using English for professional and social purposes. Such a moment will most likely never arrive ❗ because there’s always something more to learn in terms of vocabulary, phraseology and grammar, so don’t wait and start living the kind of life you’ve always wanted to live by using your English RIGHT NOW!
Thanks for watching my videos throughout the year!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🙂
Best Regards,
Robby
P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!
P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!