When do you consider yourself to be "done"?

[Lasonax]

I couldn't find a thread like this, even though there was one somewhat simlar ("When is the first sign of you nailing the language you are studying?" or something like that) so... Yeah.

At what point in your studying do you think that you're good enough to stop studying it? I mean, we can always get better, even if it's our native language we can never know everything, so theoretically we could keep studying in languages forever.

How about you? Will you continue book-studying "forever" to learn about new and extremely uncommon grammatical rules and words, or will you just drop all learning books after you've reached a certain point of fluency?

Personally I feel that after over 7 years of studying english, I don't really need to study it much more than this. I have one more english class to go, and potentially one on top of that if I decide to pick an extra, advanced english class. I'm very fluent in english however, and I got straight A's in English, so I do feel like it's somewhat unneccesary for me to even study vocabulary, even if it could be useful. I don't really know where my limit goes, but I have been fluent in a way for a few years now, and I definately think that it's not enough to just be fluent. Where the line goes is hard to say, especially if it's something you're studying on your own, but yeah... Thoughts accepted!

[linguaholic]

That's a tough question, Lasonax  :wacky:

Well, in my opinion, it always depends on why and for what reason you are learning a language. If it is just some kind of a hobby to learn let's say Language X, I would be probably satisfied if I could just reach conversational level in it. If you need Language X 'jobwise', thinks are different though. In this case, I would try to reach perfection in this language. This does of course not mean that I would study it forever, however I would try to reach a very high degree of fluency and I would definitely want to know all about the syntax and the grammar about that particular language. Still, I would not try to master every single idiom and every exotic phrase in that language, that's a sure thing.

[Rosa]

Wow! I've never really stopped and thought of that before. I think that my take on the subject is that even though I might be studying as a hobby I shouldn't stop. Although I would stop beating up myself with books and so on but I know we are never too old to learn ,plus we learn something new everyday so there would be no stopping for me.

[jfab]

I don't think I'll ever be done. Learning is a daily process. Just because you've learned something today, doesn't mean it stops there. It's a continues thing. So yes, I don't think I'll completely learn. 

[GingerSpice]

I don't feel like I'll ever be done either, even when I'm fluent in a language, I feel like there's still so much learning to be done, I'm always learning new things.

[Trellum]

Never.  When you start  learning language you can't just stop learning it and using it... odds are everyday (if you live in the country where the language you learnt is spoken you will learn something new nearly everyday the first few years. 

For me learning a new language is like losing weigh; once you lose the weight you intended to lose you can't just go back and eat everything you like!  You need to keep watching what you eat in order to keep that weight off.  Same with a language; you need to practice and use it as often as you can in order to keep the knowledge fresh in you mind.

[whnuien]

Though I'm already able to communicate, understand, and listen well in few languages but I'm still learning everyday from others.

I'm not planning to become very well but it's always nice to learn a new thing about the language I speak everyday and be able to use new words when I'm communicating with others.

[Miya]

N E V E R

In my opinion, you can never be "done" learning a language. Languages evolve over time. New words are created and old words are faded out. There's always going to be something new to learn. I've lived in America for over 15 years and I am still learning English. I'm fluent as in I can speak, talk, and understand, but there are still times when I mispronounce a word or I don't know the meaning of a word. So I don't think one can ever be done learning a language.

[trenchant]

Like the others in the thread have already said, I don't think a person can ever possibly be "done" learning a language.

However, if you're asking about when a person can safely consider themselves proficient, then I'd say as long as you can hold a basic conversation with a native speaker of that language, and be able to understand 70% of the words you'd see in a normal, general piece of writing, you can safely consider yourself proficient.

[Rosyrain]

I'm not sure we should ever be done learning our chosen language, unless we come to a point that we really are not interested in it anymore.  Life is a learning process, and there are always new things to learn, even with languages that we speak.

[kate23]

I agree that you're never really done but I think that once I get to B2 in the languages I'm currently studying (which is French and Hawaiian, for the most part) I'd consider that to be the end point of official studying.

After that I'd just continue to communicate and read/listen to media in those languages. I'd still technically be studying as I would still be learning and increasing my skills through communication and media, but that would then be the point that I put more focus on other languages on my 'hit list'.

[Cheesy Potatoes]

I guess, I will call it mission accomplished once I not only speak and think, but also dream in that language. I think that when the language is not only in your conscious mind but also in the subconscious mind, you already have reached your limit. It's like your mind has already treated it like your native language. I really dream of achieving this, but I still have a long way to go.

[AmYy]

I NEVER consider myself to be done, even in my native language. There is always so much left to learn, and I take it as a hobby and I'm always happy to find out something new and learn a word I heard of before, but never knew its meaning.

[Peninha]

I think we are done from studying when we can read, when we can speak and when we cam write, we're done, that's it. From studying! Now we need to keep on practicing if we want to progress further and don't lose what we have learned.

[anna3101]

I'll join the majority here. I'll never be done with any language, however sad it sounds. And in a way it does sound sad for me because I like to keep to-do lists and then cross things off. Write down a goal and then achieve a goal. I could probably mark "be fluent in..." as done when I know I can speak the language without pausing to think about a word or a particular structure. And I can read most books and articles and actually understand them. And even watch films, write letters and talk to native speakers on the phone.

But I will never ever be able to say "I know X". Nor will I ever be able to stop learning it because "I've learnt all the major stuff". There is just no such thing. It's the same with languages and with most other "endless" goals, like "try to be kind" or "stay in touch with friends". Life is like a game quest You get one small task done, you immediately get another, and so on, until it's game over. And even then nobody really knows what will happen. Maybe there are even more tasks waiting for us

 

[lushlala]

I too agree with most people here. I doubt you can ever really say you're done learning a language. Of course, you get to the point where you're fluent and have the confidence to speak it;  but I believe as with most things, you just carry on learning forever. The minute we stop learning, is the time we start slipping!  At least that's the case in my experience.

I mean, I've been speaking my native language all my life, and English for nearly as long; but I'm always learning new things about both languages, and it's something I really rather enjoy

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

As soon as I'm able to automatically think in the language, listen to it without or with little problems and utilise it without thinking too much about it, I consider myself "done".
There really isn't anything more I want to add to it, since I cover both speaking and writing under "utilise".

I don't really mind the reading part, I don't really like reading stuff.

[Verba]

For me, I can say that I am done studying a language when I have already achieved my objectives. For instance, I just want to learn for the sake of understanding the language, not necessarily speaking or writing it. So I will stop when my comprehension has reached the level I aim for. Or if I want to join in some conversations in the language I have to learn then I would go as far as learning to be conversant in it. If it is for a job then I would have to really learn it further, like being able to read it as well and yes, write it.

[Heda]

I will be done studying when I get one of the C2 certificates in that language! You can always get better!!!

[hungary93]

Yes I see what you mean but "done" feels like you just want to get rid of language, In my opinion you never stop learning a language, not even your native one. You could still read books and have interesting conversation on that language.

[宇崎ちゃん]

2 hours ago, hungary93 said:

Yes I see what you mean but "done" feels like you just want to get rid of language

Thought that too for a minute, but I soon realised they meant more like a "my duty is done", rather than an "I'm done with it".

[rcdpink]

On 15 May 2014 11:42:54, Lasonax said:

I couldn't find a thread like this, even though there was one somewhat simlar ("When is the first sign of you nailing the language you are studying?" or something like that) so... Yeah.

 

 

At what point in your studying do you think that you're good enough to stop studying it? I mean, we can always get better, even if it's our native language we can never know everything, so theoretically we could keep studying in languages forever.

 

How about you? Will you continue book-studying "forever" to learn about new and extremely uncommon grammatical rules and words, or will you just drop all learning books after you've reached a certain point of fluency?

 

Personally I feel that after over 7 years of studying english, I don't really need to study it much more than this. I have one more english class to go, and potentially one on top of that if I decide to pick an extra, advanced english class. I'm very fluent in english however, and I got straight A's in English, so I do feel like it's somewhat unneccesary for me to even study vocabulary, even if it could be useful. I don't really know where my limit goes, but I have been fluent in a way for a few years now, and I definately think that it's not enough to just be fluent. Where the line goes is hard to say, especially if it's something you're studying on your own, but yeah... Thoughts accepted!

 

 

I never consider myself to be done. The moment I stop striving to get better is the moment I get worse. Even my own native language takes a lot of effort and energy in order to keep up to date with. We are ever evolving and ever learning. So in learning a foreign language I can never really say I've completed that task. It is possible however to reach a master level.

[Chris_A]

I don`t think you can ever consider yourself to be done learning a certain language. No matter how hard you study, if you are not a native, you cannot really master a language. And by that, I mean, mastering all the nuances of expression, accent, being able to read and write perfectly, mastering sentence structure and so on. These things are really hard even for native speakers. And, yeah, maybe you could completely master a language eventually, but that would take at least a decade of study.

[宇崎ちゃん]

12 hours ago, Chris_A said:

No matter how hard you study, if you are not a native, you cannot really master a language. And by that, I mean, mastering all the nuances of expression, accent, being able to read and write perfectly, mastering sentence structure and so on.

It sure is possible, that's what we call "C2 level".

Mastering all the nuances and expressions: I'm not sure what you mean by this one.
Mastering accent: Olly Richards always aims on the accent from the very beginning. He has a nice Egyptian accent while speaking Arabic, while he still has his British accent while speaking English for example.
Being able to read and write perfectly: English is not my native language, but I can read and write it much better than most of the Americans who don't even know how to distinguish "your" from "you're" (annoyance #1).
Mastering sentence structure: I don't understand what's so hard about this one. Though it can be hard in languages with lots of exceptions, but if you use the language non-stop every day, it'll all become natural to you at some point.

[oneself]

I believe when you are able to converse fluently in a language with the correct usage of grammar you have completed the stage 1 of learning a language. But when you are also able to read and write in that language without committing any errors in grammar, that is when I think one has learned a language completely and properly.