"Are you fluent?"

            Hello, hello from good ol' Provo! I'm back at BYU for summer term classes. One of the classes I'm taking is about teaching Chinese as a foreign language (I'm hoping to be a Chinese TA come fall). Earlier this week, our instructor posed an interesting question, "What does it mean to know a language?" Or in other words, how good do you have to be? 

           When I tell people that I am studying Chinese, they sometimes ask, “So, are you fluent?”  I never know how to respond. It’s hard to say. What does it mean to know a language, or to be fluent or proficient in a language? Is it possible to speak a second language like a native?

            It is true that when I am in China I can ask for directions, tell stories, haggle fiercely, buy groceries, engage in small talk, and even discuss politics. But at the same time, it never ceases to amaze me what I don’t know. For example, one day I realized that although I knew how to talk about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, I had never learned how to say the word oval. A native speaker would not have this problem!  When I think of all the English words, terminologies, phrases, cultural references and idioms that I know how to say, read, and write, it seems impossible that I will ever truly know Chinese.

            Even if I did know all the words and phrases that the average native speaker does, I still would not really know the language itself. The first chapter of Teaching Language in Context (one of my textbooks) explains the concept of communicative competence, which includes grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competences. Grammatical competence—a mastery of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar— is only the first component of knowing a language. 

            At the same time, I don’t know every English word, but I still consider myself fully competent in the English language. I don’t know many of the rules of English grammar, but I know when something is incorrect. In theory, to know a language means that you can use the language as a pure medium to communicate your thoughts and emotions, to use a language without being distracted or inhibited by it. It is hard to draw the dividing line between learning a language and knowing a language. It’s going to be a long time before someone mistakes me for a native Chinese, no matter how good I think my accent is. However, in practice, I don’t think it really matters whether you “know” a language or are “learning” a language, as long as you are constantly speaking, reading, and writing the language you want to know. Or at least that's what I tell myself:).