What level of Kannada is considered fluent?

The inhabitants of Karnataka in Southwest India primarily speak the Dravidian language Kannada. Linguistic minorities in Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,  Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala speak Kannada. By 2011, it was estimated that Kannada was spoken as its mother tongue by about 43 million people. Kannada is spoken as the second and third tongue Karnataka by about 12.9 million non-native speakers, making it an average total of 56.9 million speakers. It is one of the 22 registered languages of India and the official and administrative languages of Karnataka State.

It is especially famous among those who aspire to work in Bangalore which is the capital city of Karnataka. Kannada is the most widely spoken language in the state of Karnataka. Additionally, it is also accompanied by a rich and vibrant culture. With that said, it’s definitely not an easy language to master. When we consider the aspect of fluency, the point remains the same in every single language. 

There is no right level of fluency in the language. If we go by paper then you are fluent in a language when you have achieved level C1 of that language according to CEFR. With that said, the concept of fluency is extremely subjective in the eyes of the masses. To keep it simple, what you consider to be fluent, might not be fluent for another. For you, speaking well in Kannada could be fluent. For another, being able to read Kannada easily could be fluent. And for a completely different third party, being able to understand Kannada might be fluent. 

There are different variations of fluency in every language if we ignore the official C1 level. On the other hand, if we consider the CEFR C1 level of language, then that would expect you to be fluent in every single skill including listening, speaking, writing and reading. If you truly wish to know what is considered to be fluent in Kannada, then I suggest figuring out what fluency do you wish to achieve in the language. Is your ultimate goal to speak well or is it to understand the natives. Or is it both? 

On the other hand, do you wish to excel in every single skill of the language? If your choice of fluency is subjective in nature then I suggest reaching out to a professional who specifically excels in that skill. If your view on fluency is not subjective in nature, instead it aligns with the views of CEFR, then I suggest preparing for their test which would evaluate all of your abilities and skills in the language and identify you accordingly. 

Kannada was used as the language of the preceding court in some of South and Central India’s most powerful empires, including the Vijayanagara, the Chalukya, the Rashtrakuta and the Hoysala. The language of Kannada is written using a Kannada script extracted from the Kadamba script of the 5th century. For roughly one and a half millennia Kannada is epigraphically proven, and literary Old Kannada was flourishing in the Ganga dynasty of the 6th and Rashtrakuta dynasty of the 9th century. Over a thousand years, Kannada has had an uninterrupted literary tradition. Be a part of this ancient treasure. Start learning Kannada today!