I think the scoring for Defense Language Institute and Foreign Service Institute are different. ( and I tested in late sixties and early seventies when you were still learning English <g> so that may account for the diff as well. I know when I tested 3 was comfortable fluency for work and everyday life, but 4 meant fluency. Accent counted differently depending on the language. They didn't cut you a lot of slack on Spanish or French or German but got a little looser on tonal languages. To get a good reading writing score in a romance language you had to be very very good, but to be able to read a newspaper in Thai, Chinese, or Arabic was considered impressive.

That said, I don't think anybody speaks anything very well unless they've lived there in situations where they couldn't really fall back on English. ( when you start forgetting the English word for things <s> )

>Yes, however, I recall that I was told (or read) that no one ever tested above a 3 except for Henry Kissinger who scored a 5...
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>>I think you went to Monterey, too, right? I've taken the FSI in 4 langauges and even did pretty well. ( for lurkers - the Foreign Service Institute language exam rates proficiency in both the spoken and written language and assigns scores of 1 - 5. 1 means you can order food and ask directions, 5 is an educated native speaker. ) but in anything other than very short conversations I wasn't going to pass for a native speaker in the spoken language and learning to speak the language from me would not compare to learning from someone who learned the language before they started school and then was educated in the language.
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>>You want to learn English from Henry Kissinger ( about a 5+ written and a 5 - spoken. ) <bg>
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>>>In one foreign language school I recall, tests were taken in three areas: reading, writing, and speaking. (The speaking test was one student speaking to 5 teachers who each were fluent speakers of the same language but from a different country). A possible grade of 1-3 for each. Most native speakers actually scored barely a 2. A 2 was required to pass for some specific in-country positions where fluency was required. I went to school with many native speakers who spoke the language worse than many who learned it in highschool as a second language.
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>>>There are many people in some countries who do not learn the grammar rules of their native language. Some never finish school past the 8th grade. Others never bother to learn and employ those rules.
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>>>Anything is possible.
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>>>>Hi All, but esp. Dragan and Terry.
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>>>>In my Dutch newspaper of today there is the story of a French teacher (a teacher of French, not a Frenchman) who is currently sueing an employer for not wanting to hire him. The employer is a private, commercial school where adults can learn various foreign languages. The employer only wants native speakers as teacher. This person is a Dutchman who claims to have a better knowledge of current French than many of the employed native French speakers. He claims to know 28.000 French sentences by head, to know all current developments in that language, that many of those native speakers may have been born over there, but may have left their home country more than 20 years ago. She, the employer, feels 'insulted' by him because he says she discriminates him.
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>>>>So, what's your opinion guys.