What is Fluency?
I've been wondering how you know if you're fluent or not. Obviously, I am not. But I have a friend who speaks Irish Gaelic and he said one day it just hit him and instead of trying to translate a sentence into Irish, he had an Idea in his mind that he expressed in Irish.
I think I have a pretty decent handle on Spanish, but every time I want to say something: i always have to do the translating. Is it true that you don't have to translate when you're fluent or is my friend just pretentious? And: how long was it before you all became fluent?
6 Answers
It helps to define fluency Have a look at this
I believe that fluency is speaking in a flowing style where the words come naturally to you/the speaker and that usually comes with many years of practice...This is normally attained through living in the country/ies of the language you wish to learn.... in this case, principally, Spain, Central or South America One of the steps towards greater fluency is to be able to think in thet language without the need to translate into your native language. However, this takes alot of practice and is not the first step. I can do this more easily and frequently now than I used to be able to do and understand written Spanish as I read it without having to translate it as I go along.
I haven't become fluent yet but I am working towards it. If had had the opportunity to stay much longer in the country of my birth; Peru, until say, 12 years of age instead of leaving with my parents when I was two.. lol) I would probably have been alot more fluent than I am now.Still, it gives me the motivation to learn lol 
I hope this helps 
I would like to add that I agree with KevinB that there are different levels of fluency - he explained that very well ! I would also like to mention that once you reach a degree of fluency I have observed that you have to work at it to maintain your level of competency and and to improve.... it just doesn't happen without effort 
How long does it take to become a good guitar player? What defines "good"? These are similar questions. Certainly you have to be able to play a song without thinking about where your fingers go before you can be good, but I don't think that's enough.
Similarly, you have to be able to think in a language to be fluent, but, again, I don't think that's enough. I generally think in Spanish when I'm using it, but I don't consider myself fluent. My vocabulary isn't big enough, my grammar is sometimes not right, and my sentence structure is not as idiomatic as it should be. I can generally hold conversations, read books and newspapers, watch TV and movies, and listen to the radio, but I still get derailed frequently when I run across a word or a phrase I don't understand. I think fluency is a matter of degree, rather than a level you reach.
I think fluency comes to you when you dont have to think about what you're going to say-it just comes to you. Spanish was my very first language. I went years without speaking it and forgot a lot. Im now regaining it again but I have to think sometimes about the words that im going to say.
Your question is intresting because fluency is the holy grail for every language student. No there is no universial definition of fluency. When most people say fluent, they are thinking native level fluency which is impossible unless you are born into the langauge or have been studying for years and ideally immersed it. Going by your definition I would I am somewhat fluent. Something I can say without thinking, and for things I am not that familiar with I have think about it.
Well that is very interesting to me - I thought that a person's birth language was 'always' there and just never went away. I can imagine it would get rusty when not used but maybe it depends how long (how many year's) were spent speaking it as a child. And re the question of fluency, it seems that that can be a bit of a personal opinion, some people have more confidence in their abilities and are able to say that they have a good command of any subject not just languages, while another person would think that they were only half way there knowing more or less the same amount. I agree with 'a' that communicating/speaking naturally without stopping to think would be the sign you were pretty well there!!!
