Fluent

As I am learning to speak French, and as I attempted to learn Spanish in high school, I am increasingly amazed with the way people can become fluent in a foreign language, let along languages.  I imagine language comes more naturally to certain people such as math or athletics or music is more natural to others.  I also imagine some people learn the foreign language quickly through necessity and/or total immersion.  Then there are those devoted scholars with nothing to drive them beyond desire to learn a new language.  However the knowledge has been obtained I am completely in awe of the fluent speakers of foreign languages.  The more exotic the language is the more admiration I have for the individual.  One may argue that all foreign languages are exotic but I disagree.  For example, in Texas there are very many Spanish speakers, therefore a student of Spanish has probably heard, seen, or perhaps even utilized many Spanish words.  I am merely saying some languages a student has been exposed to while others are one may know exists but has never heard or seen written.  For example, before learning French in school I had only seen it written down a couple of times (if at all) and heard it perhaps a few times.  I have only heard Greek or Italian spoken in movie,s I have no idea how to begin to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese (so to me these are all more exotic languages), and Swahili and Polish are completely exotic.  Perhaps one with more worldly experience than I would learn a different foreign language faster than I could.  

Moreover, I crave to be able to say with confidence, "oh yes, I am fluent in French" and proceed to carry out a conversation with ease.  I would love to have thoughts or perhaps even dreams in French.  I sometimes become very excited when I make a mistake and write a word in French rather than in English, or when talking with a friend about my French class and my brain automatically begins to try to translate everything I wish to say into French. In these instances, I feel I am showing progress and perhaps learning more than I may realize.  On the other hand, whenever I fail French homework assignments repeatedly or have extreme difficulties with French tests I become somewhat discouraged and realize just how much more I have to learn. 

As for now I remain completely jealous of the bilingual and long for the day I may join this accomplished group of devoted scholars.  To be able to write prose and stories in two different languages would be sublime.  To be able to choose which language a given story would show more meaning in would expand my literary experience.  Similar ideas may be shared across languages but words are unique.  Words define our human experience and some languages may explain a phenomenon more vividly than others.  

Words and language are beautiful aspects of human culture and fundamental to human society and global interaction.  Fluency across languages is paramount.