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Why do people lie about being fluent? | ||
Tags: Fake Reviews | Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Naomi Chambers Newbie United States thepolyglotexperienc Joined 4853 days ago 23 posts - 30 votes Speaks: Spanish Studies: FrenchC1, Swedish | Message 1 of 88 27 April 2011 at 6:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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I know a woman, whom after studying Spanish for a few semesters at a community college is telling people that she speaks Spanish fluently.
It is clear to me that she is lying. Why do people feel the need to lie about fluency? Edited by newyorkeric on 28 April 2011 at 7:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5305 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes  Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 2 of 88 27 April 2011 at 6:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Probably because they fool themselves and want external reinforcement
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| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6364 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 88 27 April 2011 at 7:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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They don't (well, most don't). There's no single definition of "fluent" that is universally used. She's fluent according to her definition ("I'm able to hold a conversation") and not according to yours. That's not very strange with a fuzzy word like "fluent". The "able to speak without stopping to think" definition makes some sense looking at the word itself, and it's probably a lot more common than you think.
The real question here should be "Why do people feel the need to put people down as soon as they use the word "fluent"? I've seen it many times, not the least in this forum, where "fluent" has become a word everyone is scared to use. I don't dare call myself "fluent in English" on this forum, despite passing with ease the criteria for "advanced fluency" on the webpage. (Oh, no, are we going to have another definition-fight on this word? What I'm saying is that there are many definitions. I'm not trying to claim one definition is better than another.) 28 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 5907 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 4 of 88 27 April 2011 at 7:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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I try to make honest appraisals of myself and my own abilities because I do know that self-deception can be a really sad thing to watch. I've seen it in others at times, and I don't want to go there.
However, I have had this idea myself -- if I just declare "I'm fluent" and manage to somehow convince myself, maybe it would just be. Could there is something do this? I do meet, now and then, people who just seem to pull it off with a bit of knowledge and a lot of self-confidence. Though when I do build up the courage to drop myself into situations where I'm surrounded by Japanese -- usually what happens is I fail miserably, and crawl back in my non-fluent little hole. I have been working on this awhile, and I think maybe because I do have Japanese speakers in my family, and because of all the time and tests and reading and studying, that language learning civilians assume I'm fluent -- and I admit to on occasion just not telling everyone the full extent of how non-fluent I am. I don't know how this is judged. With Japanese people and others who study Japanese, of course, there's no fooling anyone, and no need to really explain. Really, saying "I'm Fluent" to a room full of Japanese guys who just set the room laughing. In these situations you just talk, you don't need to say "I'm fluent." Native speakers can figure out everything after less than 10 words out of your mouth. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 4868 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 5 of 88 27 April 2011 at 7:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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Basically what Ari said. It depends what your standard is. Some people would say I'm fluent in German (although very few) in that I could probably survive in Germany, but it would involve lots of yelling and repeating things to be understood.
On the other hand, some people (such as myself) would define fluency as being able to speak freely without needing to deliberately form the sentence in my head (right now, I have to think "Okay, I'm using "weil" so the verb goes the end of the sentence"). It just depends who you ask. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5451 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 88 27 April 2011 at 8:08am | IP Logged | |||||
She isn't lying. It is due to the Dunning-Kruger effect, Beginners tend to believe they have superior abilities than they actually have, and people with advanced skills tend to be overly critical of their own abilities. 28 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7003 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 7 of 88 27 April 2011 at 8:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think some of it is ignorance and the idea of knowing something more than others. Unfortunately some people set themselves up for a big fall when reality sets in. Others might revise the previous mindset and realize this "The more I know, the more I don't know." 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5116 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 8 of 88 27 April 2011 at 8:31am | IP Logged | |||||
I was going to mention the Dunning-Kruger effect, too. It also made me think of anosognosia (just because my wife works in neurorehabilitation). Plus I also think that Ari is right that people have different opinions about what 'fluency' means. As human beings we often tend to delude ourselves about many things. In addition, many people tend to exaggerate or even to lie for whatever reason. If I know that they are exaggerating, I take that into account and that's that. Personally, I would not really be interested in making this person understand that she is not fluent. What would that accomplish? I would just let it go and keep studying my own languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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