How Long Should it Take to Learn a Language?
By Ivy do Carmo
Why should a person learn a second language? The answer to this question is fundamental, specially if you are thinking about becoming bilingual or even a polyglot. There are many good reasons for people wanting to learn a language or at least learning its basics concepts, such as because of:
- A romantic relationship or a new friendship;
- A job opportunity;
- A scheduled trip;
- A family cultural inheritance;
- The need to improve their communication and thinking skills.
What is your reason for wanting to become fluent in a language? Is it one of the listed above or is it something else? Keeping your particular purpose in mind is essential to motivate you during the path of mastering a language.
Another helpful thing to do is discovering the benefits of this endeavour. In your opinion, what are some of the positive consequences of learning a new language? You may mention befriending new people, immersing into new cultures, exercising your brain, this way improving your memory and problem-solving skills, etc.
Acknowledging these benefits and keeping your purpose in mind will help you to stay on track. However, you may be wondering: how long does it take to learn a language? What steps should I take to learn a language fast? In this article, we will answer these two questions.
The first thing we have to point out is that there isn’t an established period of time carved in stone to learn a new language. The time it will take for you to become fluent in a language will depend on some factors, which we will consider in detail:
How Proficient Do You Want To Become In Learning a Language?
We have mentioned above that it is crucial to always keep in mind your motive for learning a new language. This is important because your motive will define the level of proficiency you want to achieve. For example, if you want to use the language to make business deals you may need to study harder than if you just want to know the basics to get by while traveling.
The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI) created the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Scale, which most US government agencies use to measure an employee’s capability of speaking a foreign language at work. There are five levels of proficiency:
- Elementary proficiency – The person is able to satisfy routine travel needs and minimum courtesy requirements.
- Limited working proficiency – The person is able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements.
- Minimum professional proficiency – The person can speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics.
- Full professional proficiency – The person uses the language fluently and accurately on all levels normally pertinent to professional needs.
- Native or bilingual proficiency – The person has speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native speaker.
Take a closer look on these five levels and choose which one you want to achieve regarding the language you will learn. The higher the level you want to reach, the greater amount of time and effort you will have to put into this commitment.
Now that you have determined how well you want to speak the language, let’s consider the second aspect that defines how long does it take to learn a language.
How Much Time Do You Have Available?
What is your daily schedule like? Are you in a full-time job or are you currently studying at a university? Grab a piece of paper and write down the things you have to do every day and how many hours do these obligations require. Also write down the numbers of hours you have to sleep and o other important activities and then you will see the amount of time you have available to study.
This is a crucial aspect to determine how long will it take you to learn a language. After all, a person who studies one hour per day can’t realistically expect to learn at the same pace of a person who studies three hours per day. It is math 101: The more hours you study, the faster you’ll learn.
Remember: learning a new language is a daily commitment. It has to be as important to you as eating or sleeping and you can not miss a single day. This will make your brain get used to this learning routine and it will even make you long to study more and more.
However, when we say “study”, we are not talking about sitting down with a boring grammar book for hours in a row. There are plenty of more enjoyable ways to learn a language! This is what we will consider over the next topic.
How Much Do You Get Exposed To The Language?
A painless and fun method of learning a new language is immersion. If you are already replying that you can’t afford to spend a few months in a country where this language is spoken, don’t worry – this is not the only way of immersing in a language.
Let’s use the example of a fictitious person named Susan. Susan wants to learn Spanish, but she is not sure she will be able to succeed because she works in a full-time job and she can’t spend a month in Spain to immerse in the language.
How could Susan get exposed to Spanish without leaving her city and taking into account her tight schedule? Well, let’s create a reasonable daily routine for Susan and you will be surprised to see how many opportunities she has to get exposed to Spanish:
Susan wakes up at 7 AM and turn on a Spanish news channel or a Spanish radio station while she takes a shower, gets dressed and have breakfast. During the half hour it takes for her to commute to work, she drives or takes a public transportation while listening to a Spanish podcast.
From noon to one o’clock, Susan uses her lunch break to study some grammar and add new vocabulary learned into flashcards on Anki. At 5 PM, she goes back home and listen to another entertaining podcast. She gets home and turn on the radio to listen to good Spanish music while she takes a shower and cook herself dinner.
After eating and tidying the kitchen up, she makes a Skype call to a Spanish friend she met on a language partners website. Later, she relaxes in front of the TV, watching a great Spanish series on Netflix and finally goes to bed, ready to start all over in the next day.
Did you calculate how many hours Susan got exposed to Spanish even with her busy routine? She did everything she had to do during her day and even so, she managed to study for 6 hours! Do you see how you can get exposed to the language you want to learn, taking advantage of every opportunity you have during the day?
We call this exposure to the language of “passive learning” because you are not precisely studying, but you are still learning. Some even create a “Zero English Rule” for a period of the day, when they commit to only listen and read things in the language they are trying to learn. Let’s now consider the fourth and last aspect that determines how long does it take to learn a language.
How Motivated Are You To Achieve Proficiency?
Motivation and a positive attitude are essential to achieve any goal and learning a new language is no exception. How can you stay motivated even when an obstacle come up? A great suggestion is keeping your eyes on the prize. Remember why you started this undertaking in the first place and think about how great you will feel with yourself when you achieve your goal and consider all the great outcomes of not giving up. Besides contributing to your personal growth, a lot of doors will get opened to you when you become bilingual.
Although motivation is essential, setting an ideal learning routine is also very important. Otherwise, you will not be able to see a real development on your skills and you risk becoming discouraged. We can summarize all of this by 3 simple steps to maintain your motivation at the highest level:
A) Clarity
Keep in mind a clear set of actions you are going to take and schedule those actions within a clear period of time. If you do not have a clear goal of how you are going to achieve fluency, you just do a bunch of random things and you shortly give up.
B) Engagement
To succeed in learning a new language, you need to feel fully engaged with your learning method. The challenge you put ahead of you when learning a new language can neither be too easy nor too difficult. You have to find a balance that will take you into “The Zone”, i.e. a flow state where you fully optimize your energy into learning the language.
C) Purpose
We have mentioned this point before but it is always good to stress it: Learning a new language requires a lot of time and energy, so you must have a clear purpose in mind if you want to triumph. Ask yourself: “Why do I want to speak this language?” Having a strong reason to learn the language will motivate you to face any obstacles in your way.
We have considered in this article that there isn’t such thing as a defined period of times it takes for a person to learn a new language. It all depends on fours factors: the level of proficiency they are expecting to achieve, how many hours they can commit, how much exposed to the language they get and how motivated they are.
If you liked these tips and want to learn a language fast, you will enjoy the free language learning guide we have prepared to help you.