How Long Will It Take To Learn A Language As A Beginner?

Learning a language is a huge task, but it’s certainly not impossible. It just takes a long time, so it’s not surprising that the most common question that is always asked is “How long will it take?”

The real answer is…. It will take as long as its takes.

That isn’t a very helpful answer, but it’s the truth. Everyone’s experience is different as there are a number of factors that will affect how quickly you can learn a language, which I will discuss below.

So long as you put the time and effort in, you will see results. That is really all you need to worry about.

The Difficulty Of The Language Will Affect How Long It Will Take To Learn

One of the biggest factors that will affect your learning timeline is how difficult the language is.

This doesn’t mean the language itself is difficult, it more relates to your own previous experiences in life and how difficult it will be for your circumstances.

For me, as a native English speaker, I will find learning a lot of other European languages “easier” as they all use the Latin alphabet and there are a lot of similar words.

I could pick up a Spanish book and just reading it. I will not understand anything, but I will be able to still read the words and maybe I can even recognise a few similar words. Take “Club de fútbol” I don’t think you need to have studied much Spanish to work out that this mean “football club”.

Having a head start with a language like this will make it easier and you will learn it faster.

However, if we look at the other end of the scale, let’s say Korean, it’s no harder than Spanish, but if you wrote my name down in Korean, I wouldn’t even recognise it.

I have zero context for this language, I don’t know the alphabet. I don’t know anything about it. This means that for me, Korean is going to be a whole lot more “difficult” and is going to take me a whole lot longer to learn. 

I would literally have to learn to read again, I wouldn’t have that head start that already knowing the Spanish alphabet would give me.

(You can read more about – Are Some Languages Are Easier?)

Your Pre-experience Of The Language Will Affect How Long It Takes To Learn

If you have studied the languages before, it will help obviously help you. I know a lot of you will think what you learned in school was a waste of time and that you’ve totally forgotten.  

This is what I thought, but I was wrong. I studied French for 5 years and learned “nothing”. I left school and told myself I knew nothing. 18yrs later I started French again and I was amazed at what I still had stored in my brain. It was simple stuff, but it was still quite a lot.

So if you have had any experience with the language, at any point, this will definitely help you out.

If You Know Any Other Languages It Will Help Speed You Up

If you already know more than one language, you will be able to learn another a lot faster.

Although, I am guessing that if you are reading this, you have not learned a new language before and are trying to work out what is ahead of you.

However, If you have had the pleasure of learning one already this can help you a lot. You have been on this journey before, so you should expect a similar experience again.

The Method You Use Will Affect How Long It Will Take To Learn A Language

The methods you use to learn will also drastically affect the speed at which you learn.

There are a lot of ways you can waste your time, which will slow you down. If you are learning efficiently and frequently, you will just naturally be able to learn the language in a shorter time.

You will need to find a method that is most effective for you. This may take a little experimentation at the start, but once you find something you like, stick with it.

Active Learning

Active learning is the type of method that is going to challenge you the most but it’s also where you will make the most progress.

If you can dedicate more time to this, you will learn faster.

Passive Learning

Although active learning is more effective, passive learning still can play a part in helping you. Adding this to your learning plan can help you get to your goals faster.

(You can read more about – Active and Passive Learning)

The Amount Of Time You Put In Will Affect How Long It Takes To Learn A Language

One of the biggest factors that will affect how long it takes you to learn a language is how much time you put in.

Over all, language learning is very much one of those things where the more you put in, the more you will get out of it.

I can sit here and say that it will take you 600 hours of active learning to be quite good at a language, but what does 600 hours mean?

If you spend 1 hour a day, then will take you 600 days. This is the best part of 2 years!

If you only do 15 minutes a day, well, it’s going to take you a lot longer. The same goes the other way, if you study for 8 hours a day, it might only take you a few months.  

There is no right or wrong answer with this. You should put in what you can commit to and isn’t too taxing for you.

There is no point doing 8 hours, if after only 1 hour you are exhausted and pretty much brain dead. You need to find the right balance and stay consistent with it.

(You can read more about- How To Make Time For Language Learning)

Be Consistent With Your Language Learning

Being consistent will play a huge factor in how long it will take to learn a language. You need to stick at it.

I think you should also try and do a little every day; this is one of the best ways to be consistent. 1 hour a day will be much better than doing 7 hours all at once every Sunday.

Just find a pattern that works for you and stick to it, you will see results if you remain consistent.

Look At The The Over All Timescale

You should give yourself time to achieve what you want. Too many people give themselves far too little time to learn a language. You need to remember that you will always be learning. as you can never complete a language.

You can’t even complete your own native language, so trying to say you can learn a whole new language in 6 months or less is just crazy.

Take your time and be willing to commit to the mission for a while. I’d suggest you give yourself 3 years to get the basics down and start feeling comfortable.

After that time you should be able to safely see some good progress. You should be able to decide from there what you want to do to do next, which will hopefully keep pushing on to really increase your level.

It seems like a long time, but it really isn’t. You will be able to use this language for the rest of your life, so it’s worth the commitment.   

(You can read more about – Can You Learn A Language In A Month?)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see why the question of how long it will take is so hard to answer.

There are so many different factors that can influence things. No two people are the same and no two people will have the same language journey.

The only thing I can say is, don’t compare yourself to anyone else and just stick at it and you will get there.

It will take as long as it takes …but you will get there

(You can read more information about- Is There A Limit To How Many Languages You Can Learn?)