How Skilled Do You Actually Need To Be In A Language?
Though advancement in a language on its own does not guarantee interpersonal effectiveness and achievement when living overseas, it still requires your due regard. It is believed by many newcomers, and local residents, that being competent in the official language is the direct road to a good life in the country. In an Australian National University poll in 2015, more than 90% of people surveyed believed that the ability to speak English was critical to "being truly Australian" and that being born in the country was much less signicant. At the backdrop of such mainstream perceptions in society, language is one of the most important enabling skills for sound and effective communication to build quality relationships and improve the living experience overseas.
As the role of language has been discussed from multiple angles, it should resonate that you should not solely rely on any external matrix such as a language test report to objectively reflect your communication skills in that language. You should also not entertain arbitrary and absolute terms like ‘good’ and ‘bad’ with or without comparing yourself to others superficially based on how well you speak and write. I believe a more appropriate measure of language skills should be its utility, namely how much it enables you to achieve the desired outcomes in life, without it being the only or arguably most important hurdle to cross-cultural relationship building.
I deliberately word the question in a way subject to interpretation in different situations, instead of referring to any matrix in widely known language proficiency tests as indicators of your language competency. Appreciating language as a communication tool, you should strive towards the level where you can get the point across using the simplest words possible and generally comprehend others with minimal misunderstanding. Ideally, you advance beyond the task-oriented functional language for your job and daily routines in a foreign community (e.g. shopping, travelling) to a level where you can basically understand and express feelings and emotions in that language. Just imagine yourself to be somewhere above the bottom line wherever you define it in your circumstances, but not significantly advanced.
If you are relatively confident in that language but still pick up the book to help you solve the riddles in connection building, you can bypass this evaluation while keeping the habit of continuous learning. If any of these still sound vague or arbitrary, just remember it is neither native-like competency nor anywhere closer to that level that I vouch for or encourage you to endeavour towards. I often come across this term ‘native like’ in the common narrative around language acquisition. The mastery of foreign language appears overrated for reasons discussed from various angles above. Language holds some space in the big picture but should by no means be worshipped as the only or most critical hurdle to forge connections. What I am debasing precisely is the excessive focus on mastering language in ignorance of the other critical skill set and mindset, which the other two MLC building blocks encompass.
