Can You REALLY speak a language fluently in 3 Months?

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Timestamps:
0:21 - Can you really learn a language in 3 months?
01:15 - What's fluency?
02:40 - The CEFR scale for measuring B2 level
04:44 - The good news!
05:15 - How much can you REALLY learn in 3 months?
06:21 - The 3 conditions for reaching B1/conversational fluency in 3 months
06:42 - 1. Time on task
07:15 - 2. The distance between your native language and your target language
09:49 - 3. Life circumstances
11:18 - Recap

[TomRNZ]

If being fluent means speaking a language perfectly and without mistakes, then I'm not even fluent in my native language 😂.

[gabrielecauda]

We can resume this video in one sentence: don't get obsessed with fluency. Take your time, relax and enjoy the journey when you learn a new language. Great video with lots of useful advice. Thanks!

[burmy]

Luca to me seems to be one of the few "real polyglots" on youtube. Good content and seems to be honest about assessing his own skills.

[kendon]

Thank you for the video Luca. I actually attempted to learn Korean in 6 Months (B2 level), but you made me realize that this level is unattainable, which is a good thing. Language learning should never be a time to pressure ourselves, but rather a time to enjoy. It's not about how quickly we learn it, but more about the struggles and hardships which we encounter, like what I am currently going through with Korean. Now, my goal is to get A2 in Korean by the end of June. It definitely won't be an easy task since I don't live in South Korea and I have never learned an Asian language before, but it will be worth it again.
Thanks again for the video.

[MaxEnglishCoach]

Love the content, Luca! Great question. Now I'll just throw a random joke below.

--
Interviewer: How do you explain this 4 year gap on your resume?

Me: That’s when I went to Yale.

Interviewer: That’s impressive. You are hired.

Me: Thanks. I really need this Yob.

----

If you understand that joke, your English is GREAT!

[Kevin-jcfx]

Brilliant and accurate explanation. If you don't have any real emergency like having to go to that country in 3 months then don't put too much pressure on yourself. 3 months is enough to break the ice and nail the basics, after that, you have your whole Life to improve in that language.

[juanmartinez]

Finally a video about the subject that tackles it realistically, without trying to sell us the possibility of fluency in X amount of time (usually too little) just to gain subs. Great one, Luca!

[charityneverfaileth]

This makes me feel better about my very slow progress in Japanese (years into it). I only have about an hour to devote a day, so of course my progress is slow.
Thank you:).

[rashidah]

Thank you for this encouraging but realistic portrayal of how long it really takes to learn a foreign language! I'm learning Jordanian Arabic as a native English speaker with work and a family. What I thought would take me 2 years I now realize will probably take me 4 due to the distance between Arabic and English and the amount of time that I can devote to it regularly. And I shouldn't compare my progress to someone who has 3+ hours to spend working on their language skills every day. This is liberating! Thank you for this helpful dose of realism! 😊

[mdasifurrahmanbhuiyan]

I was missing Mr luca, , didn’t posted video for long time
My favourite language motivational speaker after steve Kaufman

[dustincartwright]

The video I wish Luca made 8 years ago. I've watched dozens of amazing videos from Luca. Summarized they say the same thing but this video did such a good job at putting it all together in a way that makes sense to most people.

[mybestideas]

I speak 5 languages on C2 level and one on B2/C1 level and still studying. The B2 level is French, and have spent a year to get to this point, and am a really fast learner. It took me 8 months of 6-8 hour days, 5 days per week to say I finish B1 with a mock-up DELF test performed by a french professor. I received 67/100, far from perfect.

Also, as per your video, I would also define B2 level as 'fluent' however you are still lacking vocabulary, written abilities and you won't understand everything. Let's call B2 baby-fluent, C1 - high school fluent and C2 fully fluent near educated native.
So, basically it depends: you might not need higher levels or your own level in your own language is only B1 or B2, so if you reach the same thing in the other language you might think you are fluent, but B1 is maybe only 1/4 of the way and B2 is maybe 1/3. It gets harder as you go. The biggest gap is between B2 and C1 and you can get stuck in this zone for a long time.

I wish all a good luck in their studies!

[gogakushayemi]

My definition of fluency is quite similar to Luca’s, but I think of “basic fluency” as B1. Basic fluency is totally achievable depending on the language combination. If you already speak a language that is similar enough for you to get the gist of things before you study the second language, then B1 is doable. For example, going from Spanish to Portuguese.
Honestly, I am not a fan of the fluent in… trend. Learning does not have an absolute end. I have been a native speaker of English for 40 years and I still learn stuff.
But, I generally agree with all of these ideas.

[Phylaetra]

The US Foreign Service has done a lot of research on language acquisition. They do have 'hours' to reach a 'level', although the levels are the IRL levels (0-5), and it is worth noting that '3' is "Professional Working Proficiency" which is (roughly) equivalent to C2 on CEFR and 'superior'/'distinguished' on the ACTFL scale. I also notice that Asian languages (at least Chinese and Japanese and Korean) have yet another scale (or scales? I have to admit my ignorance). Note - the IRL level 3 is sometimes a difficult enough test that native speakers may not pass it - remember, it is for diplomats, and there are some vocabulary requirements that most people will not need nor want in their use of language (unless high-level discussions of multilateral trade deals is something you regularly discuss over dinner...)

In any case - they have the (average) number of hours (of instruction - there is homework too, time on that is not counted, I don't think) to reach the various IRL levels for languages in different 'categories' (based on difficulty for monolingual Enlgish speakers). A B-2 level can generally be reached in 400-600 hours - typically 20 hours per week, so 20-30 weeks or 5-8 months (except for the most difficult languages - Arabic, Japanese, Korean, etc.) B-1 in say 200-350 hours (10-18 weeks or 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 months). (Note - these are rough estimates of already rough averages based on a conversion from IRL to ACTFL and then from ACTFL to CEFR, so maybe take them with a grain of salt, but I did the best I could with the resources I could find that were publicly available).

Your video is good, but you kind of skip over the reading and writing skills (which seem to be ignored in a lot of the 'fluent in 3 months' videos too). And I think those skills are vital to make progress, because there is so much more input and resources available if you can also read the language.

You could (and I think you said) make an entire video about 'fluency' and what it might mean, as well as the various dimensions of 'knowing' a language.

[Hellenicheavymetal]

Thanks. I started Greek 6 months ago and even studying 3 hours a day I still cant understand native speakers for the most part. I know I need more vocab through for that. In 6 months im starting Finnish. Hoping I will be able to understand them much better by then.

[Rafael-eomd]

I have a personal liking for Steve Kaufman but... once I said that, my view is that whatever language he speaks, it comes down to SK speaking different languages to a greater or lesser degree. Luca's case is completely different: when he speaks Spanish he becomes Francisco García, when he speaks French, Marcel Dupont, German, Marcus Weber... and so on and I suppose that's what challenges Luca: he takes enormous pleasure in playing up to 14 different characters, kind of actor playing different roles and hence he speaks at full speed with basically no mistakes nor accent.

[angelsjoker]

My definition slightly disagrees. For me, B2 is still "conversational" because that's also what describes your actual capabilities: you can converse about different topics but still do a lot of mistakes and regularly have to search for words (getting somewhat stuck), your language isn't really in a flow, thus you are not "fluent". For me, "fluency" starts with C1 when you actually are able to speak without "thinking" as your output just "flows" (even if you still do mistakes).

For reference, I have a masters degree in languages (thus I'm aware of the actual definitions of the CEFR levels which most people aren't) and I consider myself fluent in three languages (native + 2 languages at C2), conversational in four (B1-B2), and having basic knowledge in two (A1-A2). If someone asks me how many languages I speak, I make the disclaimer that I consider "speaking" to be able to hold a decent conversation on most non-specialized topics, thus I speak seven (having had conversations in each of them that went on for at least an hour), discounting those were I only have basic knowledge.

As for achieving B2 in three months. I'm not 100% sure, but there is ONE Youtuber called (if I remember correctly) "Language Lords" who's convinced me to have reached a level that might be B2, BUT his learning schedule was super intense and not applicable for 99, 9% of the people out there. He's worked 8h per day on his target language, and he had some prior experience. Otherwise, I agree with Luca that it's not really possible to achieve a B2 in three months outside of a language that is super close to your native language.

[Luke-nbyc]

Hi Luca, native dutchy here. Love your video's they really help me through my personal journey of becoming a polyglot like you :).
Although i like the video, i'd like to point out that if you wanted to say that you'd like to 'live somewhere' in dutch. You'd use the verb 'Wonen' in the context of your sentence. So this would make your example sentence that you made more like: 'Ik hoorde dat Amsterdam een fantastische stad is. Ik wil daar wonen'. Hope you appreciate my criticism and don't find me too much of an asshole. But would still like to say i am very impressed by your level of dutch and your pronounciation, just a small mistake of which i am sure a legend like you doesn't make often :) <3

[maximofernandez]

I completely agree with this. The breach between a B1 and B2 is vast. I got to something considered B1 in French in the pandemic in a period of 3-4 months, but that was because I already knew English (which borrows a lot of words from French), my native language is Spanish, and because I spent *at least* 3 hours everyday, dedicating them entirely on language learning. Of course I continued after that, I do not consider B1 a level where I would feel completely happy with any language in particular.

[chadbailey]

Great analysis as always Luca. Спасибо большое за видео