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As adult language learners, can we learn to speak like a native, sound like a native, achieve native-like fluency? Right up front, I will say that my answer is no. I think overwhelmingly it's not a realistic goal. It's not something that we can achieve as adult language learners, and I can explain why. First of all, let's be realistic. Overwhelmingly, if there are, according to some estimates, 1.2, 1.5 billion language learners in the world today, 80% of them never get past A2.
B1, which is sort of the beginning of some degree of ability to comfortably communicate, might add another 15 to 20%. So most people never get past that. And if we look at the number of hours that are required to achieve these levels, once you get to B1, you have lots of hours ahead of you. You have a long way to go. Or if we look at it in terms of the number of words that are required to be at this B2 or C1, C2 level, again, lots of words. And to be like a native suggests that you are at that upper level of C1 and C2. Now, granted, there is a difference between sounding like a native, saying a few phrases where you s-, your accent is very good and you sound almost
native-like, versus having such a high level of vocabulary that you can read, you know, Proust in French and understand it. We've all seen the example of the university professor who has probably a very high level, in say English, but who has a strong accent. So there's this dichotomy between performance and actual knowledge of the language. And the suggestion of, you know, sound like a native, speak like a native seems to focus in on performance when actually language learning is more about communication and enjoyment. So when I, for example, uh, started learning French is because I was
fascinated by French civilization. I wasn't very interested when I was in high school. I became interested, and that spurred me to do more learning. It was never my intention to become like a native, although the native is always the model. I mean, that's what we want to try to emulate all the while we are realistic about the fact that we will not achieve that level. And I have. I think I speak French quite well, but I have no illusions that I am native-like in my knowledge of French. And I have heard people who speak, say, English, and I think of some of
the famous polyglots, you know, on the internet like Luca Lampariello and others who are very good at one or several languages, but there's always something that gives them away. And I say give them away in terms of not that me as a non-native speaker of, say, Spanish try to judge a non-native speaker speaking Spanish. I mean a native speaker. I have heard people who speak English, let's say American English, very, very well, and for a while can sound like a native, But inevitably, there will be something that gives them away. Now, none of that matters because even those people who achieve this almost native-like level of fluency in a language, they are a very, very small percentage of the people who are learning languages.
So it becomes an unrealistic goal to pursue. The goal in language learning should be to find a way to enjoy it, to spend enough time with the language, enough hours of listening and reading, and hopefully finding things of interest and enjoying the language without worrying about whether you will be mistaken for a native. We've heard, you know, "Oh, I went to Germany, and they identified my non-German accent and switched back to English." This is going to happen. I am identifiable as a non-German speaker, yet when I'm in German, I speak German.
Most people respond to me in German. Unless you have trouble making yourself understood, in other words, if you are in that 85% of people who speak at a B1 max level, yes, there is a good chance that people will come back to you in English if they speak English better than you speak their language. But if you have a fairly decent level in the language, B2 has always been to me sort of a level of comfort fluency, where the listener is comfortable and you are comfortable, but you're not being mistaken for a native speaker. That's a very achievable objective for most people if they're willing to put in the time.
So to me, the key is that we should engage in the task of learning a language in a way that we can control the process. We cannot control whether or not other people will think we sound like a native. That's beyond our control. We can control the amount of time we put in. We can control what we choose to listen to and read. To a large extent, we can control how much we enjoy the process. Those are the things that we should control. I think back to when I created LingQ. Why was I motivated to do that? I had books at home in German and Spanish, as I've said before, full of words that I did not understand.
I was motivated to understand those books better. I was not motivated to try to sound like a native. When I was, uh, hitchhiking in Spain back in the '60s, sitting in, uh, you know, with a truck driver or a driver who picked me up, I was only interested in communicating. Uh, I was not interested in sounding like a native. However, because I put in the time, because I spoke to a lot of people, I listened to a lot of content, I read a lot of books particularly, which is very important, I accumulated a larger and larger vocabulary, better and better level of comprehension. I enjoyed the language.
I improved. I improved to the level where I'm satisfied in some of the languages that I speak. I'm satisfied with the level that I have achieved. In the other languages that I'm learning, for example, Persian right now, I recognize my limits. It doesn't discourage me. I'm enjoying the process. I will get better. You know, sounding like a native is not my goal. It may be the fact that on the internet, YouTubers, you know, I, I think there's a tendency amongst all of us to try to come up with a title, and maybe that's the case here with this video. We want to try to snare, you know, eyeballs, say something a little bit controversial or a shiny object to attract eyeballs.
But for most people, it's not an achievable goal. I, I don't even think it's something that most people think about. As long as they're able to understand what people say, if they're able to get their meaning across, if they have a sense that they can improve in the language, that's really all most people want to do. It is rather remarkable that most people drop off at about A2, B1. In other words, they've gone through that early stage where there are some easy victories.
They now, you know, understand some things. They have a bit of vocabulary, and it's at that point that they have to commit to staying the course, and most people don't. And I think rather than, uh, suggesting somehow, uh, an unrealistic goal of sounding like a native, as people who are in, you know, keen on language learning, I think our goal should be to motivate people to stay the course. You don't have to become a native. You won't become a native. There are people who speak very well. You may or may not get close to their level. But you have to believe that if you continue putting in the time, doing
the reading and listening, speaking when you have the opportunity, without worrying about your performance, then you will continue to improve. You will achieve whatever level you achieve. You will become as good as you can become based on the time and effort you put in, and that's the important message, not trying to sound like a native. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.
