Real Conversation #5: Family (Gabriel & Kevin)

Gabriel: Do they speak English really well?

Kevin: The younger one speaks better but the older ones don't speak quite as well… But they speak Italian fluently. So they're still really smart kids but because they lived in Italy for a while, their brains just only have enough room for the Italian.

Gabriel: I see, ok!

Kevin: But I'm trying to teach them English whenever I go to Poland, I teach them very basic English and they start learning after a period of time.

Gabriel: Excellent, ok… and when, uh… So when you're with them, you primarily speak in what language?

Kevin: Polish.

Gabriel: In Polish, excellent. Do you speak fluent Polish?

Kevin: I would say that I speak well and I understand nearly fluently, however, to classify myself as fluent would be a tad of an overstatement. I like to keep it real; I don't want to tell you I'm fluent when in reality I do struggle. However, I could most definitely say I speak Polish.

Gabriel: Excellent. Ok. Well, I think... In my opinion, fluency is something abstract, right? So... there are many people that would say, “Oh, I speak a certain language fluently” and another person would disagree with them and say, “Oh, you know, you speak somewhat well but it's not fluent yet” and that's fine but I mean, like… I bet that, you know, given that you communicate with your cousins in Polish and with other family members, I'm guessing you speak pretty well. You're just being humble. Kevin: I speak quite well.

Gabriel: You're a modest guy. I don't want to...

Kevin: I'm modest, I'm being modest. I speak okay.

Gabriel: Nice, excellent. That is really cool, and... Myself I speak, you know, like you probably already know, very basic Polish but I want to improve and... But I speak Russian well, so that helps a little bit.

Kevin: It does help. It does help.

Gabriel: There's some correlation.

Kevin: Absolutely.