Does speaking a second language "fluently" demand you can speak it

[no_hypocrisy]

grammatically correct?

Melania Trump: "As you may know by now, when you attack him he will punch back 10 times harder," she said in her thick eastern European accent. "No matter who you are, a man or a woman, he treats everyone equal. He's a fighter and if you elect him to be your president he will fight for you and for our country."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/04/politics/melania-trump-donald-trump-wisconsin/

Her husband and his campaign emphasize her fluency in 4-5 languages. If so, someone tell Melania the referenced statements above should recognize an adverb and not substitute an adjective. (Not "he treats everyone equal". It should be "equally".)

[immoderate]

1. You speak correct.

--imm

[DawgHouse]

8. I seen what you did there!

[Glassunion]

10. What did there? I missed.

[hughee99]

2. Most people aren't gramatically correct when speaking their first language.

Should people speaking a second or third language be held to a higher standard?

[mehneh]

3. This.

Yes. I agree. Fo sho. Language is flexible and inventive; our errors and alterations make language evolve.

[madinmaryland]

6. Teabaggers?? They are demanding amnety for their poor linguistic skills!!

[hughee99]

13. Yeah, it's JUST the teabaggers.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the teabaggers, but there's a reason there's grammar nazis on the DU, and it's not just because teabaggers are trolling.

Complaining that Trumps wife shouldn't be considered fluent because she used an adjective instead of and adverb is like complaining about the nits but ignoring the 6000 lb elephant their on.

I'd guess it would take all of about 5 minutes to find speeches from ALL the major presidential candidates and other major leaders where they didn't manage to get their grammar quite right. It would probably take even less time to find a post where you or I made a mistake.

[11 Bravo]

25. You meant to say "There are" grammar nazis on DU.

(Nazis is plural.)

[hughee99]

27. Excellent point.

My teachers would be sad to learn that one of their students is not fluent in their native language.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. It does for the dictionary definition of "fluent"

: capable of using a language easily and accurately

[shadowandblossom]

14. She already does. And most native speakers wouldn't be considered fluent if you

expected perfect grammar. (None of them more likely...)

[Kelvin Mace]

22. "Accurate" in my view would mean grammatically and idiomatically.

Not perfect, but able to score 90% on a test.

[shadowandblossom]

23. I don't think many native speakers will meet your criteria. (even advanced ones don't always.)

This is making me think of an experience a couple of months back when I was helping a native Spanish speaker who's learning English. When he asked me if he'd written a sentence correctly, I had to explain to him that I wished more native speakers wrote so well.

[shadowandblossom]

24. ...

and he is far from fluent.

[840high]

28. yep

[Albertoo]

32. Many people do not speak accurately, whatever language they use :)

[Brickbat]

5. Good lord, who gives a shit?

[GOLGO 13]

7. One who speaks 3 languages is called trilingual

One who speaks 2 languages is called bilingual
One who speaks 1 language is called an American

[shadowandblossom]

15. There's more truth to that than I'd like.

there's a lot of truth to it nonetheless.

[rock]

9. Do you mean grammatically correctly?

Just a joke. Your construction is good (not 'well') in my book, but does show that English grammar does not pin everything down. It's loose in many places. I certainly would characterize Melania's speech as nearly fluent. How about I close with an anecdote and a comment?

Anecdote: In a Dear Abby column the writer complained that her MIL (an ex school teacher) corrected her grammar often. She asked should she tell her to go jump in a lake? To which Abby replied, "Maybe you should tell her to go jump into a lake!

Comment: There's something about Abby's advice that's odd but I can't quite put my finger onto it.

[MADem]

11. She is not "fluent." Her accent is thick as molasses and her use of expressive vernacular is off.

Zsa Zsa Gabor was "fluent." So was her sister, Eva (New York is where I want to stay, I get allergic smelling hay...).

This woman's ability certainly exceeds "conversational" but falls below "fluent." Now, she might be fluent in other languages, but I'd say she's just very good at this English thing.

I also think Trump told her what to say. I'd blame the "equal" on him!

[shadowandblossom]

12. This is petty.

[mainer]

16. She speaks two more languages than most Americans do

I am not going to be petty and point out her grammatical errors. She appears to be a very accomplished woman.

[840high]

29. Same here. I think she is

a lovely and intelligent woman.

[Cal33]

17. Everybody makes grammatical errors. It's a question of "more or less," not

"all or nothing." If one is that strict about breaking rules, then practically no one
is fluent in any language - including his own mother tongue.

As for speaking a foreign language without an accent, it's very rare, at best, to
be able to do it when one has learned a foreign language as an adult.

[linuxman]

18. How many languages do you speak?

[mainstreetonce]

19. She could afford a language coach

Her language usage sounds like a newly arrived immigrant.

[struggle4progress]

20. Unless if Melania have some anything of interesting to be said, I are much not care

if whether the grammar of hers good or bad, since me not time wasting to be listen of her

[Codeine]

21. That's petty and pathetic.

She speaks English with greater fluency than most native-born Americans.

[lame54]

26. I speak one language...

I will not criticize anyone who can speak several languages - that statement is fine - her description of Trump is full of shit - but as far as the way she communicated it - it was fine

[Android3.14]

30. There are other issues to criticize

What an unfortunate posting.

[Mosby]

31. think different

Was an apple slogan that in my opinion is bad English, it should be "think differently" this is really common now though, to leave off the -ly.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. To a language teacher "fluent" simply means being able to talk fast

The other dimension is accuracy, which means not making mistakes in grammar or usage. No one is 100% accurate, not even in his or her native language.

[LostOne4Ever]

34. Fluency is a myth.

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/myths-of-fluency