[100% em inglês] What fluency is and what it isn't

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]So many beginner students when they start taking the course they come to me and say teacher I don't need to become fluent what I want is to be able to communicate decently and understand what other people say but I don't need to become fluent like really fluent you know and whenever I hear these words what I think is come on you're being shy and you don't need to you don't need to be shy. You don't need to limit how far you're going to get. I know people have different reasons to learn a language.

[00:00:39]Not everyone has the same goals when it comes to English. Some people really just want to travel abroad and handle any kind of stressful situation without major difficulties. But still, you don't need to limit how far you're going to get. The more you learn, the easier it is to learn more and more. So, English kind of becomes an extension of you. It becomes part of your life. And the reason why beginner students say this in my opinion is because the idea they have of what being fluent is is such an unrealistic idea. So, how would they even dare to say they want to become fluent if being fluent is way beyond their capacity? And to be honest with you, it's actually not easy to define what being fluent is, what fluency is. There's no objective and clear definition for fluency. But I can guarantee you, forgetting words, thinking before speaking, making mistakes, having an accent, all of these things are part of being fluent. So be careful not to set unrealistic expectations for what fluency is because that's going to hold you back and you're going to have the impression your English is never good enough. And the more you feel like your English is not good enough, the less you're going to interact with people in English because you're always going to secondguess your sentences. Secondguessing your sentences becomes addictive and that's super annoying because we think what we're about to say is not going to be good enough or exactly what we meant exactly as we pictured. So maybe that's not even worth saying anything. That's when your expectations start holding you back. So, let's talk about what fluency is and what fluency is not. Let's start by what fluency is not. I actually made a list here and I'm going to read it so I won't forget anything. Speaking without thinking or without any pauses. I don't think that's going to happen because we're not robots. We think before speaking and we choose our words even in our first language. So that's going to keep happening because that's natural.

[00:03:21]That's part of communication and not pausing is actually weird. Pauses are going to help the other person understand you better. So pausing is healthy and we don't need filler sounds.

[00:03:34]We can use some expressions here and there to buy ourselves some time like you know what I mean is something like that. But we don't need to fill up the silence every time. We don't need um and you're going to be perceived as someone much more confident and clearer if you get rid of filler sounds. And if you learn how to pause, when to pause, and the benefits of pausing and thinking before speaking, that's not a problem in any language.

[00:04:14]Next one, speak in English or any other language you're trying to learn just the way you speak your first language. I've seen some people say it that they're only going to consider themselves fluent when they speak English just the way they speak Portuguese, just as effortlessly, naturally as they speak Portuguese.

[00:04:40]That's not going to happen. For example, let's say that today you're going to take some time.

[00:04:50]How would you say you're going to clean the Have you ever thought of the word in English? If you don't know how to say, do you think that makes you less fluent? Just because you don't know how to name every tiny little thing you do, even though these are daily things, do you think just because of that your English is not good enough? Do you think that's what's missing for you to become fluent? Naming every single thing you do, every single thing you see, you have in your house, you don't need all that to consider yourself fluent. And the more you speak, the more you try to use the language, the more you're going to come across words you had never thought before. You don't even know all the words in your own language. So don't expect yourself to be able to express everything, every single thing you do.

[00:05:51]Your English is amazing, even if you don't know how to say in English, which by the way is baseboard. But I didn't know that before [clears throat] making this video. I had to look it up. Next one. Understanding everything.

[00:06:07]Everything you read, everything you hear. That doesn't happen even in our own language. For example, here in the south of Brazil, we say when there's a car crash, it's a car crash.

[00:06:29]And we also call the traffic lights we call them sin but I know that in other parts of Brazil it's called seafuru and I know that in s the word means throw something away like I need to throw this paper away or something like that.

[00:06:51]They use the wordad but hibolad is like shake your ass.

[00:06:57]where I live. That's what it means. That That's what hibar means. So, you're not going to understand every single thing.

[00:07:05]And when it comes to your listening skills, the more you practice, the more you're going to understand. You're going to be able to catch those little words that they don't even sound as words.

[00:07:19]They're just some kind of noise in the middle of a sentence. In the middle of a sentence. these connections, you're going to be able to identify them more and more. But still, you don't need to understand all these tiny little details to be able to have a conversation because there's something called intonation.

[00:07:45]Intonation will naturally highlight what matters most, what carries the meaning of the sentence. So understanding every single thing is not something you have to worry about to consider yourself fluent. Next one, never forgetting words. You know when you're talking to someone and then you want to say something and the word is on the tip of your tongue but somehow you can't remember it. You can't remember what it is. So you have to explain in another way. You have to find another word.

[00:08:21]Sometimes you're not even able to find the right word and you swear there is another word and that's the one you're looking for but the word simply won't come to you. I'm sure you have been through this in your first language many times, let alone your second language.

[00:08:40]So, you don't have to have any kind of promax kind of memory to consider yourself fluent. Next one, and this is a huge misconception on what being fluent actually is, and this one is being at the C1 or C2 level. you're only going to be fluent when you reach these advanced levels. This is not true. By the time you reach C1 and C2, you're going to be speaking, communicating, using your English a lot. Otherwise, you're not even making it to the advanced levels.

[00:09:20]And the most important thing for you to know and keep in mind about this whole level thing is that according to the CFR, the common European framework of reference for languages, which is a very famous and widely used system to measure proficiency in languages. And this is where the levels A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 come from. They come from the CFR.

[00:09:53]According to them, according to it, to the CFR, you become an independent user, an independent user of the language around the B1 and B2 levels. So the people who created these levels, they say you become fluent before you reach advanced levels. And that's something amazing for you to know because a lot of people mistake being fluent for being advanced when not even native speakers are considered to be at the C2 level.

[00:10:30]Not all native speakers. And now let's finally talk about what being fluent actually is. And as I said at the beginning of the video, this is not something simple to define, but I'm going to add my two cents to the conversation. So according to what I have seen and what I have experienced as a teacher for over 16 years and also as a student, as an English learner, which is something I will always be. Being fluent basically means being able to convey your ideas, to express your ideas, even if you have to simplify them whenever you're having any kind of trouble. Because the more you speak, the more you're going to find yourself in situations where you don't remember all the words. So, working around things you don't know or you don't remember.

[00:11:24]Working around these words is one of the most important skills a fluent person has. They always find a way to communicate what they want. Even if not perfectly, that won't be exactly as they imagined, but they will communicate and they will keep the conversation going.

[00:11:45]And if you want to build this skill, then you need to put yourself in situations where you're going to face difficulties. so you can learn how to work around them and overcome them. So if you really want to be fluent, the one thing you have to be looking for is opportunities to use your English. And there's another thing I added to my list to what being fluent is. And it's being able to interpret English naturally without relying on Portuguese structures. These are two separate worlds and you will be able to navigate and move between the two of them. And that doesn't mean you're going to stop translating. I don't think you have to stop translating. I think that's something that happens naturally over time. You stop taking so long to figure things out. So, the kind of translation you're going to make won't be literal.

[00:12:46]you're going to prioritize meaning over literal accuracy. So, it's going to be more like a flexible interpretation rather than a literal translation. And you're also going to be able to play with that. For example, when we talk about our age, we say, "I am 32 instead of I have 32 years old." in English. If a native speaker is watching me right now, this sentence won't probably make any sense to them. But it's because here in Brazil, in Portuguese, we say would be like have. We say we have a certain age and you say you are a certain age. I think it's so interesting to pay attention to things like that and compare literal meaning to the actual meaning to this interpretation of what they really meant. It's not always going to be what we expect it to be. And that's really interesting to notice. So, you can play with that and that's going to bring some very interesting insights on how certain things are perceived.

[00:14:02]That reminds me of when I was trying to learn Chinese. I I think that was Chinese. Yeah, I'm not sure. I used to work at a restaurant and my boss was from Taiwan or Taiwan. And she tried to teach me Chinese or Mandaring. I don't even know if these are the same. Anyway, she showed me how to write woman, the symbol for woman. And then she showed me how to write married woman. And the symbol, the little drawing, the symbol for married woman was the same as woman but with something different. There was a broom next to the woman. So the symbol was a woman and a broom. I just found that really curious. And then you can compare it to your first language and see how differently we approach the existence. The way you see the world will change completely when you learn a new language. And that's why I think so many people fall in love with learning languages. Through languages, they learn how to see life differently just because of the way languages are built and the way the world is expressed through them.

[00:15:21]So, learning a new language is one of the best things you can do to expand your existence. And last but not least, there's one more thing I added to my list to what being fluent is, and that is being able to navigate and notice patterns and language items, how words behave in a sentence when they're together. So the more you expose yourself to the language, the more familiar you become with it. And then you start noticing patterns everywhere.

[00:16:01]Even the silliest sentence is going to provide you with patterns, collocations, and interesting things to notice. So being fluent is being familiar with how the language works and being able to notice patterns. And that is for sure one of the most powerful skills a fluent person has because it brings autonomy.

[00:16:30]It brings independency to explore and learn from many different sources. It's just what I said before.

[00:16:39]even the silliest meme or whatever you come across, you're going to be able to learn from it. So, keep in mind that you want to put yourself in situations where you're going to practice your ability to work around things you don't know. And you want to expose yourself as much as you can to the language. That's what you want to do if you want to become fluent.

[00:17:11]And it has nothing to do with being advanced, with not making mistakes, with not thinking, not translating, not forgetting words. And I hope this video has inspired you to keep going. Feel free to explore the language. Trust the process. Put in the work. And when you realize, you're going to be exactly where you want to. I'll see you next video. Thank you for watching. Bye. Take care.