Holding a conversation without stuttering for words and be able to understand the other party even when the other is using inconventional words. Thats what I think
i think fluent would be..being able to read write n speak it imo... though my speaking is not that good...i speak half n half which many pple call chinglish so yeh...
eventhough now ... i still can''t find out the softs for typing in chinese like u guys did i can speak canto but not quiet of man . ggg arggg.
I can't understand the Canto-Pop either... but still can understand some of the olden day songs (at least haha). Some of the cantonese words are still alien to me... partly because i seldom use those words in Malaysia here...
Er... what you're describing is better known as functional illiteracy. :laugh: By way of comparison, most overseas Chinese (esp kids) speak Chinese like the Mexican bus boy speaks English; that is, they don't. Like my kids (and a lot of their Chinese friends) they only speak Dim-Sum Chinese (Cantonese used in restaurants). Talk about something of substance, like the Obama - Hillary debates, Tibetan problem, or even something like a 'certificate of occupancy' requirement, and you may as well speak Russian to them. As, in... Da-uh... no clue, Sherlock. -noclue No offense but I wouldn't call that fluency. Fluency in a language requires that you can at least read and write at the high school level of that language (about your average newspaper), which is also about the level of this thread. That means you should be able to take this entire thread and have no trouble in translating it on the fly, word for word (both verbal and written). As for understanding songs? Ask any Chinese fifth grader; they don't have any problems. Which is really funny about all the overseas born Chinese people that consider themselves fluent in Chinese; not being able to understand something that a Chinese grade school child can, and yet they still have the hubris to consider themselves fluent? LOL... Ralph
Oh, for those of you that haven't seen this, it's a hilarious look at the thin veneer of "fluency" that most overseas Chinese have :laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuTABOYaV4U Ralph
I thnk i'm fluent compared to must british born chineses! but my friend form HK always comments on my cantonese maybe because i mix it with a bit of english as well XD but when i talk to my elders i speak proper cantonese because watching TVB helps a lot! but i can't read or write chinese or understand mandarin should watch more taiwanese series haha
For most westerner the term fluent means being able to understand the language to its fullest extent in which you can write/read/and hold a long conversation. I myself whom talk canto and understand canto still cannot say that i am fluent in it because i cant write nor read it.
