<p>I'm a firm believer in pursuing language outside of the classroom through study abroad or travel experience. </p>
<p>How many of you actually became fluent (and i mean MORE than conversational; basically advanced proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking) in a language thanks to college classes?</p>
<p>I speak French fluently, having learned it from seventh grade to my junior year of high school with both classes as well as with a huge advantage; my family is from Montreal and I had tons of exposure to the language from my infancy onward, especially around some of my relatives who don’t speak English. </p>
<p>I took AP French during my junior year of high school, and by the time I graduated the year after, I was fluent. I took an advanced French course for my language requirement last spring, and it was a breeze. Of course, I worked very hard over the years to become fluent in the language, but I was determined and I set my mind to it. Persistence, hard work, and dedication are all you need to advance with the language or languages of your choice.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have considered myself fluent, but I got to the point in Latin during my high school classes where I was able to read the Aeneid straight from the Latin the way I would read something in English, without having to pause to look anything up or anything like that. I could also do something similar in translating English novels into Latin (never finished one but I got a substantial amount translated in my spare time and my Latin teacher read them and said there were very few corrections to be made). I’ve lost a lot of that though from not having much use for Latin, so I’m going to be taking a beginning Latin class in the fall as a refresher. </p>
<p>I’d imagine Latin is different, though. I was never able to speak at any kind of conversational level in Latin because there was just no emphasis on that in my classes.</p>
<p>I’m fluent in Cursing thanks to classes…Does that count?</p>