As I’m sure others are figuring out, learning a new language doesn’t have an end (“I’ve done that”)—you make new friends, learn new expressions, realize that there’s a lot out there and because it’s language it doesn’t stop changing. For me, one measure of when I became (relatively) fluent is that I knew when to laugh at a joke – could anticipate the punchline by the timing and rhythm as well as the content.
I’ve learned enough over the past 30+ years so that I can meet new people and have conversations easily all across the U.S. We often realize that we know people in common and can chat about topics that are wide-ranging, though I’m no better at sports topics in ASL than I am in English.
