How Long Does It Take to Learn a Language?

People ask me how long it takes to learn a language, sometimes with reference to a specific language. I feel like asking them "what's the hurry?". Just enjoy the language and enjoy whatever you are able to achieve in the language.

Foreign Language Service Institute information:

0:00 - How long does it take to learn a language? What's the hurry?
1:15 - The more different from English (if that's your native tongue) the more difficult the language will be to learn.
1:40 - What you do outside the classroom is more important than what goes on in the classroom.
2:47 - You need to enjoy the process of learning the language.
4:43 - What is interlanguage?
5:42 - You will likely always make mistakes in your new language and that's okay.
7:46 - It takes about this long to learn a language similar to your native language if you're motivated in my experience.
9:13 - The key is to enjoy the process of learning the language.

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#languagelearning #languages #polyglot

[Thelinguist]

How long does it take to learn a language? My wife has been learning to play the piano for a long time. She derives immense enjoyment from it. How long does it take to learn to play the piano? Maybe learning a language should be looked at in the same way.

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Social Media

[africubanbronco]

One of the things I enjoy the most is watching someone's face light up when you speak to them in their native language. It's beautiful.

[KarenVanessaBuitrago]

It really depends. It took me around 10 years to get to C1 in English, but only a year to get to B2 in Portuguese

[g_smke]

Even in English its not like we know everything, that's why certain professionals get paid so much because they know a particular domain that others don't. Impossible to speak a single language 100%

[luizantonio]

Steve's passion for learning is so inspiring! Even if I hadn't learned anything else from him, this lesson would've been enough: enjoy the process!

[nightflight]

Steve-san, nice to see you, I'm a middle-aged Japanese guy who have been interested in learning languages.
"Enjoying the process of learning" is what refreshed my mind. As you might know, we, Japanese, want to be so perfect in everything. We're afraid of making mistakes, being a laughing stock, and in schools from 12yo, we've learnt English as if we could have learnt to decode Enigma.
I've been interested in Russian. In my juvenile days, Mr. Gorbachev's speech fascinated me. His voice was so powerful as changed the world.
But as soon as I saw the conjunction chart of nouns and adjectives, my mind was broken. 6 ways of conjunctions by three sex and plural, 6*(3+1)=24.
I'll continue to learn Russian again, though it might be like a walk of a turtle.

[lewisfitzsimmons]

Passed the Scottish version of the GCSE for French like 15 years ago.
I don’t speak any french...all passing that taught me, was the language learning was something I was “bad at” and didn’t “have the genes” for =/

Until I stumbled butt first into Lingq, the polyglot community and Krashens comprehensive input ideas, after that I got to a confident level in German in about 4 months and am now pretty fluent and confident. Going back to french very soon to do it properly. Thanks Steve <3

[canalmusicaefutebol]

I am English teacher in Brazil and use many tips given by Steve in my own classes. His knowledge is a present for someone who likes to learn languages.

[IKEMENOsakaman]

As Mr. Kaufmann says, it really depends on people. I also don't think we need to hurry. We have our own pace. Let's have fun with it and not stress.

[weave_girl]

I love " what's the hurry" because it's true, everything takes time, also I'm just enjoying my language journey, learning Korean for about 2 months now. 😊 I'm along for the ride ❤❤ thank for videos!

[zsoltpapp]

I was very good at understanding english for like 10 yrs, i had no problem watching films or news broadcasts in english, and i understood everything. This was after many yrs of classroom learning and language exams. I wasnt very good with everyday communication though, because i didnt specifically practice that. Anyway, after spending a lot of time with natives, a couple of months was enough to get to a near native level. Speaking is the fastest way to learn to speak, but it helped a lot that i already knew the vocabulary.

[philipdavis]

I know its a frustrating question for language learners, but I do think that giving a number of hours needed for language goals is useful. When I started Japanese evening classes a few years ago I had no idea how hard it would be - after struggling for a while I came across the 'official' figure of 2200 classroom hours and it was quite a shock to me (but it did explain why I wasn't getting anywhere!). For me, having a reasonable total number our hours per day/week/year gives me a target and has helped me settle down with a realistic study pattern, and has helped me avoid the frustrations in not being able to read/communicate as much as I'd like - I know I'm a year or two away from that, and I'm comfortable with that now.

[FireFistMot]

Got it ✔️
the secret to learn a language without stress is to enjoy the learning process

[foreverlearningfrench]

"Enjoy the process of language learning." J'avais besoin d'entendre ça. Je vais enregistrer cette vidéo pour la motivation. Merci Steve !

[russianwithevgeniy]

Thank you for the great video! From my own experience I can say that consistency and building a habit of everyday studies is really a key. It's really like learning playing an instrument. For instance, the Russian torfl standard states that you need approximately 100 hours to reach the A1 level. But in reality it's realistic only if you study 1 hour every day consistently and with a right approach. I'd say 100 hours is a minimum in reality. But ultimately it's just better to relax and study every day, and not think about big goals. This often turns out to be more efficient.

[cspel]

I began to get so discouraged in learning Korean. I've been learning for 2 years slowly but surely. I haven't engaged in Korean seriously for almost a month now. But after watching this it really encouraged me to continue 🙂

[obalfaqih]

Totally agree, it's mostly about the journey itself. I feel that language learning is just like sports, you always exercise to stay fit, and most importantly, enjoy it 👌
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, insightful as always! 🙏

[kerim.peardon]

As I was talking to myself this morning in Polish, I realized that I finally know more Polish--and am much better at speaking it--than Spanish.

I had 3 years of Spanish in high school. I have been learning Polish (a language that the Foreign Institue says takes about twice as long to learn as Spanish) on my own for 1.75 years.

So it's really hard to gauge how much time It will take to learn a language because it depends on 1, how much practice you do daily. I am now doing an average of 1 hour of Polish a day, which is a lot more time than I ever spent on Spanish.

2, the quality of your learning. I have used Duolingo, flashcards, and now LingQ. I think all are better than traditional classroom methods that emphasize grammar first.

And 3, prior languages are a factor. Because I had learned verb conjugation in Spanish (which took a while because it was such a foreign concept), I recognized it in Polish and learned the present tense conjugations in a day. In other words, because I already understood the concept, all I had to do was look and see what letters Polish does to accomplish the same thing. When I get to the point that I understand cases in Polish, then it wouldn't take me long at all to learn another inflected language, like German or Russian, because I will have already mastered the concept (which is what takes time); I will just need to learn the letters the new language uses to do the same thing.

There's also the fact that the act of learning, especially a foreign language, rewires your brain and makes it easier/faster to learn more. And you figure out what technique works best for you, so you learn subsequent languages faster because you don't have to waste time again on things that don't work well.

[acealexander]

Thanks a lot for your videos, Steve. Much appreciated.

[Nihilnovus]

After studying Latin and classical Greek I found learning many other derivatives from said languages easier. If you have a base in some of the classical languages modern languages come a lot easier.