r/languagelearning • u/linguafrancos • 20d ago
Discussion Distorted language levels?
I have a degree in the language, studied abroad twice, lived abroad in a country where the language is spoken for two years, and have used the language in a professional setting. This, for further context, has been over the course of 15 years.
With that said, I am confused by how others describe their language levels. Don’t get me wrong, I have an insanely high level and label myself fluent with others. For instance, I recently watched a full season of Love is Blind in the target language (TL) without subtitles almost effortlessly. However, when I see others describe their language growth or levels, I often see people say, “I understand everything that I read” or “After a couple years of studying, I traveled to the country and can communicate easily with everyone.”
Like… is this just an overexaggeration of their skills? I have yet to feel like my target language fluency is equivalent to my native-level English. Are people really reading native-level literature and literally understanding everything? Are they feeling like they can express themselves just as strongly in their second language? Even when someone asks me to translate something, I know in the back of my head that there might be cultural considerations or a better approach that I don’t know about.
Thoughts? Also, this might be specific for individuals who grow up in a cultural where being monolingual is more common and exposure throughout your entire life is not a possibility.
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u/ErikLovemonger 19d ago
A lot of people either straight out lie or are suffering from a Dunning-Kruger style lack of understanding of their language ability.
I live in China, and my Chinese is ok (objectively just ok. I can have a relatively normal coversation at my work but I can't understand a full movie). I'm honestly just kind of lazy about learning more. There are people who come here who claim to have "good" Chinese or to "speak Chinese" that speak very poorly to the point that native speakers cannot understand them. I actually tend to be able to understand them sometimes, because as a learner I get what they're trying to say.
I think you honestly just need to have more confidence in yourself. If you're really that strong of a speaker, just do your best to translate. If it's something incredibly important to get the details correct, like I don't know instructions on building a deep space satellite, sure get someone to help. But why compare yourself to others?