advanced or fluent

[NanetteDee]

I think, guys, we are arguing about terms only.. words. Fluent, advanced or proficient, what really matters, I believe, is whether or not your skills allow you to function in the English-speaking environment -- and to what extent.

[Soup]

So if I understand you correctly you mean being fluent is "using English as good as native English speakers", don't you?

Yes. There are a lot of people whose first language wasn't English but you wouldn't be able to tell that that was the case. They are fluent, non-native speakers.

There are many definitions of fluent speaker and fleuncy, but when it comes to getting hired for a profession that requires language skills, fluent refers to "academic" native proficiency in both spoken and written skills, as one poster noted.