Quote Originally Posted by EffMah
Fluency - the quality of being facile in speech and writing

Guess you do need to be able to spell, eh? I thought that the spelling thing was part of literacy, but if it says that's the definition of fluency, I'll believe it.

By the way, I haven't met anyone who has become fluent in a language in a singal year, even people completely immersed in the language they are learning, so I can see where joysof is coming from, because unless you hang out with lingual geniuses, JKDMan, I don't think you know anyone who learned a language in a single year.
This all rather amusing. I haven't been around lately, as I've been "rockin' up a storm" with my band(look out for our CD "Welcome to Aeroflot" sometime soon ). But I could throw in a sarcastic comment or two.

BTW, Effmah, speaking of spelling, perhaps you mean you don't know of anyone who has become fluent in a single year.

I think Jasper described me very well. You could say I'm good for someone who's never attended a day of Russian classes, but I couldn't compare to someone who's been at it for 4 years in university. And they're probably not fluent either.

I wouldn't say that after 40 years speaking a language you're not fluent just because you discover new things about it. I can speak....er...passing English, but as Dogboy said I hear about new words and expressions every day. But I'm fluent in English, if I do say so myself. Heh. It's always funny when people say "if I do say so myself..."

But of course you can't get fluent after 1 year of self-study. The best of them(Jasper) after 1 year of self-study usually end up being able to read and write at an intermediate level(S-2+ to S-3 if you use that US government scale thingy), speak about a level or so below that, and their listening comprehension usually sucks. Badly. Unless they get to be immersed in the language. Of course, if that is enough for you, that is enough, especially if you never really plan on using it other than in tourist situations.