First, you’re not able to speak and you understand nothing. You’re listening and absorbing new vocabulary, relying on gestures for basic understanding.

Then, you’re able to speak a little but understand nothing.

Then you’re able to understand far more than you speak.

Then you become conversational, but it requires quite a bit of mental effort.

After that, you’re able to speak and understand without conscious mental effort (i.e., you don’t have to translate words into your native tongue in your mind).

Once you’re able to speak and listen without thinking about it, you’ll begin to actually think in the foreign language itself without effort. Once this happens, you’re really hitting a high level.

And the final level? Believe it or not, being able to follow a conversation between a large group of native speakers is the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place.

Once that happens, and you’re able to interject, come in and out of the conversation atwill, and you’re set!