How Fluent is Enough in English?

Perhaps you've been learning English for years. Maybe you've made huge progress, but you still find yourself asking the same question: "Will I ever be fluent?"

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In this episode of the Hey Lady! Confident English Podcast, Emma explores one of the most common questions English learners ask: What does fluency actually mean?

Through Priya's story, you'll discover why fluency isn't about sounding like a native speaker, knowing every word or never making mistakes. Instead, fluency is about being able to express yourself clearly using the English you already have.

If you've ever felt like fluency is always just out of reach, this episode will help you see your progress in a completely different way.

💬 About Emma

Emma is the founder of Hey Lady! and creator of the YouTube channel mmmEnglish, trusted by more than 6 million English learners worldwide.

Hey Lady! is a global English-speaking community for women who want to build confidence through real conversations, connection and consistent practice.

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Transcript

How Fluent is Fluent Enough?

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Perhaps it's been years since you started on your English journey. Maybe three years, five years, ten even. And no matter how much progress you make, there's a question that keeps coming back. Will I ever be fluent? When will I be fluent? Hey ladies, welcome back. A big warm welcome to you if you are joining for the first time, an even warmer welcome if you are a regular listener. This is the Confident English Podcast. I'm Emma, the founder of Hey Lady, an online community that brings women together from all around the world to practice speaking English. Each week, here on the podcast, we break down the barriers that keep you from speaking English with confidence, whether that's at work, whether it's while traveling, or in everyday life. If you've been learning English for a long time, but still feel like fluency is always just out of reach, well, you are in exactly the right place. So let's get right into the episode.

A listener question from Canada

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Today's episode was inspired by a message I received from Priya.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Hi Emma, I'm working in Canada now for four years. My English is much better than before. I can do my work, I can understand my colleagues. Sometimes I even make a joke and people laugh, but I still don't know if I'm actually, you know, fluent. I still make mistakes, I still don't have all of the words that I need. Most of my colleagues, they all speak English as the native speakers. And I feel like I'm never going to reach that level. So I want to ask, how long does it take until you're fluent? When can I say I am fluent?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Priya, thank you so much for writing to me about this. I want you to hear something really clearly. Because what you just described, doing your job, connecting with your colleagues, making people laugh, that's not almost fluent. It's not just getting there. That is fluency. And in today's episode, I want to explain why.

What does "fluent in English" actually mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Nobody agrees on what it means. You can ask ten people to define it, and you will get ten different answers. Some people say that it means speaking without any mistakes. Others will say it means you're thinking in English without translating it. Some say that it means you sound like a native speaker. Others will say it means speaking without fear. Maybe you've heard something else. If you have, let me know in the comments. If you're watching on YouTube, let me know in the comments. I'd love to read your insights on that. The language industry doesn't help us here. Apps promise to make you fluent. Schools sell courses that are the roadmap to fluency. And any certificate that you get will show your level, A1, B2, C1, as if fluency is a number that you'll reach at some point and then you can stop. So it's no surprise then that women like Priya and maybe like you look at all of that and think, well, I'm not C1 or I'm not C2, so I'm not there yet. I'm still working on it. But here's what I know after working with thousands of women and helping them on their journey to create the life that they want in English. Fluency is not a level, it's a feeling.

What's a better way to think about fluency?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

At Hey Lady, we talk about fluency in a very specific way. Fluency is your ability to say what you mean clearly enough to be understood, using the English that you already have. And I'll say that again: using the English that you already have. Not the English that you will have one day, not the English of a native speaker, the English that is already inside of you right now. So by that definition, a woman who can have a real conversation about her work with her colleagues, even if she makes some grammatical mistakes, she can be fluent in that conversation. A woman who can connect with her neighbor and talk about her children or share her opinion on something that matters, she is fluent in that conversation. Now, Priya, who can do her job, she can understand her colleagues, and she can even make people laugh every now and again in her second language, well, she can be fluent in her workplace and probably in other areas of her daily life. Making mistakes doesn't cancel fluency. Searching for a word doesn't cancel fluency. And the occasional, how do you say, well, that doesn't cancel fluency either? Because here is something important. Native speakers make mistakes too. They search for words, they say, um, and you know, and what's that word? They say those things every single day. So if in your mind fluency means mastering all of English, never making a mistake, never doubting yourself, well, the standard that you're measuring yourself against, it doesn't exist. Not even for the native speakers that you're measuring yourself against. It's actually a really disempowering way to build the relationship that you want to have with English.

How do you know when you're fluent enough?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much money someone has, it's quite common to feel like it's not enough. You know, you imagine a number in your head. Like if I had that much, then I'd feel secure, I'd feel comfortable. But then you reach that number, and well, the number moves higher again. And fluency works in a really similar way. When you were a beginner, you probably looked at intermediate speakers and imagined that they must feel fluent. They know so many words, they seem so comfortable and impressive. But then you become intermediate, and then you look around and you look at people who can speak faster than you, you look at advanced speakers, and you think, well, when I reach that level, I'll feel fluent. And the goalposts keep moving. Maybe you haven't heard that expression before. The goal posts keep moving. It's an idiom that describes a situation where just as you're about to succeed, the rules or the requirements change, and that makes it difficult or maybe even impossible to achieve the goal. And yes, it comes from sports like soccer or football, where it would be so frustrating if the goalposts kept moving every time you kick the ball towards them. Makes it very difficult to score a goal, right? And sometimes fluency can feel like that. The truth is, fluency has no finish line. The goalposts just keep moving. There will always be more vocabulary to learn, new expressions, new topics, new situations that you haven't experienced before. Even in your own language, you're still learning every day. You encounter a new word that you don't know, or you have to deal with a situation you've never managed before. This doesn't mean that you're not fluent in your own language, right? And the same is true for English. You don't need to know all of English to feel fluent in the life that you're actually living.

Why the goalposts keep moving

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Not in general, but specifically. Do you want to lead a meeting at work or negotiate a particular outcome? Maybe you just want to chat with your colleagues and to be able to relax at afterwork drinks. Maybe you want to connect with the people in your community, your neighbors or your kids' teachers, or the people that you see every day. You might want to travel and explore the world independently, to be able to ask for what you need to meet people on your travels and to understand what is happening around you. Perhaps you want to be able to express your real personality, your humor, your opinions, and the things that make you you. These are all really specific goals. And you may already feel fluent in some of these areas, even if you don't feel fluent in others yet. And that's not a problem. That's how fluency grows. It's not one big jump from not fluent to fluent. It's one conversation at a time, in one area of life at a time, and you're expanding slowly into all those other areas that really matter most to you. Now, I'm telling you this because I think that you may already be more fluent than you think. You're just measuring yourself against a goal that was never really the right goal to begin with.

Take control of your journey to fluency

SPEAKER_01 12:08

So, Priya, if you're still listening, and I hope that you are, this is for you. But I also think that lots of the other women who are listening right now are probably in a similar place, or they can relate. So I want you to take a moment and think about just how far you've already come. You started with nothing, a new language, new sounds, new rules, and you kept going. Like how far along you are right now has already taken so much courage, so much patience, and it took showing up again and again and again, even when it felt hard. Maybe, like Priya, you're already using English at work. Maybe you're having conversations with your neighbors, or you're traveling, or you fluently can say what you think about the topics that you care about, the things that are familiar to you. There are areas of your life that are already happening in English, areas that weren't happening in English before. And that is extraordinary. So the next time that you think about fluency, and maybe you ask yourself, when am I gonna be fluent? Take a breath and ask yourself a different question. Where do I already feel fluent? Where has English started to feel like it's mine? And give yourself credit for that, really. And then ask the more exciting question where do I want to feel fluent next? And that's a question that only you can answer. And the moment that you do, you're no longer waiting for fluency to arise, but you're in control of where it goes next.

Find the space to practise fluency freely

SPEAKER_01 14:17

That feeling of speaking freely about the things that actually matter in your life, that is exactly what Hey Lady was built around. We don't follow a rigid curriculum. Instead, we use an approach that we like to call member-led and coach-supported. So each month, our English coaches inspire all of our members with fresh conversation topics, something interesting and worth discussing. And they provide lessons and practice materials that will help you to prepare for your conversations so that when you arrive, you feel ready to speak and prepared to have a successful conversation alongside other women who've prepared in the same way. Our members often tell us how wonderful it is that they end up talking about really interesting subjects, subjects that they've never really had the chance to talk about before, perhaps not even in their native language, not with their friends or their partners or their families, and so they're covering new territory, learning new vocabulary, new ways to express ideas and their thoughts in English. And beyond our monthly topic, lots of members in our community share their specific interests and create their own conversation sessions together. Your fluency grows in the direction that you choose. And the whole community, our whole platform, is built to help you get there. If you want to know what this feels like, then I'm inviting you to come and try your first conversation with us. The link to join is down in the description. You can get started today for free. Come in, join us for a conversation or two and see what it feels like. Now, before we go, I want to hear from you. In what area of your life do you already feel a little fluent in? Tell me in the comments. I love reading your responses, and I'm curious to know if there are little pockets of conversations that you feel comfortable speaking about. Thank you so much for spending some time with me here today on the Confident English podcast. Remember that fluency is not a level that you reach. See you in the next episode.