How Quickly Can You Learn A Language?

A question that I always get asked is: “I am learning <Insert language> how quickly do you think I can do it?”

This isn’t a question anyone can really answer easily. There are so many factors that affect how quickly it might happen that it is actually impossible to even give an estimate.

I will go through some of the reason why we think we can do it quickly and then what actually can affect the time it takes us and while this won’t give you an estimate, it will make you realise that it’s probably a lot longer than you think it will take.

It Takes As Long As It Takes

The only thing you can you can really say to a question like this is – You will learn a language as quickly as you learn it.

I know that is not exactly helpful, but it is the truth. You need to understand that in general it is a slow process. It is probably going to take you multiple months of hard work.

I will go through some of the factors that can affect things below, but really you should focus on just trying to enjoy the language and the whole process of slowly decoding it, not how quickly or slowly it might take you.

Just stick with your studies and you will get there. Consistency is what will get you to your goal, not speed.

(You can read more information about – How To Actually Learn A Language Quickly)

Why Do We Think We Can Learn A Language Quickly?

I believe the main reason we focus on how quickly we can learn a language is because speed is something that is constantly sold to us.

You will often see language courses advertising that they can teach you a language in a month or that you can be fluent after only studying for 10 minutes a day, and all sorts of similar wild claims.

These claims draw us in. It’s only natural, why would we want to spend years trying to do something if we can pay to take a course and do it in a few weeks. We are impatient and we want everything fast, so of course this type of advertising appeals to us.

These are also structured courses, so we assume that whoever has created them will know exactly how long it will take to complete the course and we trust that what they are teaching is what we need to know, so it’s totally understandable for people think these courses can deliver what they are offering.

The whole point of these types of offers is that they are appealing, but the reality is they are usually lies, or very well worded to trick us into thinking we can get results faster than we think.

Most people who try these courses and then fail to make progress quickly will believe that they have failed as they didn’t work hard enough or where just not good enough, when the reality is that what they are trying to achieve is impossible.

It’s not that these courses can’t teach you, it’s just that they can’t do it as quickly as you think they can.

What Are Learning Institutes Estimates On How Quickly Can You Learn A Language?

If we look at language learning institutions, they should have some good data on how long it takes. There job is to teach people languages, so they should have a pretty good understanding of how long the average person takes.  

These institutions create courses and plan out what should be achieved by the end of each course, which means we can get a pretty good idea of how long they think it will take to learn a language to a certain level. This is also helped by the fact that they usually have a lot of students, so they can start to see exactly how long the average person should take to master whatever it is they are teaching.

The Foreign Service Institute

The FSI (The Foreign Service Institute) is the United States’ government department responsible for teaching foreign languages to their diplomatic staff (and it’s also believed the CIA and military use this department too). Their job is to teach languages to people to a decent level so they can conduct government business while abroad.

They have said it can take anywhere from 500-2200 hours (24week – 88weeks) for one of their pupils to reach a strong level in the language they are learning.

This number is so wide as this takes into account different languages and their difficulty for English natives to lean.

Languages similar to English, such as like French and Spanish are on the lower end and those that are more distant languages, like Mandarin or Arabic are at the high end of the time scale.   

It’s also important to note that these learners are basically being sent to school. They sit for 8 hours a day and study. It is their full time job for 24-88 weeks.

Council Of Europe

A similar pattern can be seen from the Council of Europe, who put together a general guideline that could describe and grade achievements across European languages.

You have probably heard of this as the CERF exam, where you can achieve different levels in a language and get a qualification to say you have reached that standard.  

They estimate that on average that it will take a student 180 hours to reach the A2 level (upper beginner) and 1200 hours to become a C2 level (advanced).

You will notice that they think it can be done faster than the FSI. However, we must remember that this is Europeans learning other European languages, so what they are learning is already quite similar to their native language.

This is also why they think it can take 1200 hours to reach a high level; whereas the American Foreign Service Institute is saying that the 2200 hours required is actually for an English speaker to learn a less similar language, such as Arabic. If you take this into account then I think they are both saying European languages can be learned in a pretty similar time scale.

What Can Affect How Fast We Learn A Language?

The estimates form the institutions are going to probably be pretty good. They will have looked at data form a wide range of participants and as we can see, both of the main institutions are pretty similar in their estimated time scales.

However, we can only take these figures as a very rough guide, everyone is different and there are many things that can affect how quickly you can learn a language, which I will go through.

Your Goals Will Affect How Long It Takes

What you are trying to achieve is really going to matter when it comes to how long it is going to take you. If we look at the Council of Europe’s estimates they explain this perfectly.

They say its takes 180 hours to become a strong beginner and 1200 to become advanced in a language. These times scales are pretty different. You need to put in almost 7 times more hours to get the higher level.

This really means that if your goal is only to have very simply conversations, such ordering food at a restaurant while on holiday, you are going to need a significantly lower amount of time compared to someone who wants to be able to understand everything in daily  life.

I imagine most of you reading this will want to reach a high level in the language you are learning, but even this will take different amounts of time. You are going to be able to reach the same fluency level as a 10 year old a lot faster than you will reach the fluency level of a 20 year old native.

Basically the better you want to be, the longer it will take to get there.    

What Language You Are Learning Can Affect How Quickly Can You Learn

The language you choose to learn will have a huge effect on how quickly you can reach your goals.

This again is explained perfectly by the institution discussed above. If you are learning a language similar to your own it is going to take less time compared to one that is very distant.

As an English speaker it is going to take me a shorter time to learn French compared to Arabic. French has the same alphabet and a lot of the words are very similar to English words.

It would take me months to even start to recognise the different letters that are used in Arabic, where I can already “read” French. This will save a huge amount of time and I am just generally going to pick up what is being said much faster in French than in Arabic.

(You can read more about – What Is The Best Language To Learn? (How To Decide What One To Learn))

How Much Time You Put In Makes A Difference

As we have already seen, the learning institutes suggest it can take a couple of hundred hours to get to decent level in a language.

There is no real way around this. You need to put the time in. However, you can affect how quickly you reach this number of hours needed.

If you need to reach 500 hours to get to a good level, well 1hour a day for 500 days will get you there, which is about 18 months.

So, what would happen if you changed that to 10 hours of study a day?  …well, then it would only take you 50 days to cover the same amount of study, which is about 2 months.

I don’t need to explain to you that 2 months is a lot faster than 18 months. However, while this may work on paper the reality is a little blurry.

Trying to learn for 10 hours a day is insane. It would be an almost an impossible amount of time for most people to spend learning, even if they where only immersing.

We firstly have lives to live, I am sure we would love to spend all day studying, but for many of us that can’t happen due to jobs and other commitments. The second issue is that you could easily get burnt out studying at this pace. 10 hours would be pretty intense, but I am sure there are some of you out there who could handle it.

The truth is that the more effort you put in every day, the faster you will see results, but it’s not as cut and dry as do X amount to get Y results.

Everyone is slightly different, so we could both study for the exact same time every day, but you may get results faster. It’s more important to just focus on putting in the effort and not worry about the results; they will come when they come.

What Method You Use To Learn Is Going To Affect How Quickly You Can Do It

If you want to learn a language quickly, probably one of the biggest factors affecting this will be how you go about learning it.

There are a number of different methods you can use and their timescale to see results are all slightly different.

Ideally you need to find a method that works best for you, if you know the way learn you can use this to your advantage and start learning your language by using the most efficient method for you. 

If you are new to learning it may take you a while to work out what methods you find most useful, but in general learning through immersion will be your best option.  It can take a while, but it will work!

(You can read more about – What Are The Different Ways To Learn A Language (and What Is The Best Way))

Who You Are Can Affect How Quickly Can You Learn A Language

One of the main reasons why it is so difficult to give an answer about how quickly you can learn a language is because everyone is different.

No two people are going to have had the same experience so far in life and no two people are going to learn a language in the same way or at the same speed. All of these are huge factors that make everything so different.

In general you will find that some people are naturally better learners, or have stronger memories, other people have had different levels of exposure to a language before learning it or they may already know a different language. Some people might just have super strong motivation that pushes them way beyond anyone else.

It doesn’t really matter what experiences we have had in life, but it does matter that this all makes us different and this plays a huge part in how quickly we can all learn a language.

The important thing to remember is that it is possible for all of us to do it, no matter who we are.     

Conclusion

my only advice for you is to stop worrying about how quickly you can learn a language and just focus on trying to learn it while staying consistent with your studying. You will get there, the amount of time it takes doesn’t matter.

Maybe the estimates given by the institutions are right, they have looked at the data from a lot of people, so it’s fair to say that these times are a good average. However, do not worry if it takes you longer or even if you do it shorter.

Just put the time in and the results will come. You also need to remember that you will never be finished with a language, you will always be learning in some way or another for the rest of your life, so don’t worry about the timescale.

(you can read more about – How To Speed Up Language Learning)