Why I’m Happy It’s Impossible to Be Fluent in 3 Months
It isn’t about the goal
I’ve been learning languages for more than a decade and I’m still not fluent in most of the languages I’ve studied. Should I be disappointed? Should I stop?
No, because it’s about the journey, not the goal.
The polyglot Benny Lewis coined the term “Fluent in 3 Months” with his popular website of the same name. It brought stars in the eyes of many. In mine, it brought disappointment. It lessened the term “fluency”. It made it seem easy, even though it isn’t. It’s work. Pleasant work if you tackle it well, but still work.
Becoming conversational, yes. That is possible. Becoming fluent isn’t. I see fluency as “expertise in a language”. It means you can handle the language very well and know its ins and outs. It doesn’t mean you are native-like. It means you’ve become skilled in the language. Even an expert in the automobile industry still has things to learn. There’s also nothing wrong with the levels before fluency!
To be an expert isn’t to know everything. It’s only a high level of skill. Nothing more.
Why is it impossible then?
To reach expertise in any sector, you need years of learning and practice. You need feedback. You need to meet people…
