Learning a Language - How Many Hours Does it Take?
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- How long does it take to learn a language? I get asked this often. Another frequent question is whether it is a good idea to learn more than one language at a time. Here I answer these questions.
Timelines:
0:18 Can you learn 2 languages at the same time?
0:52 It takes a long time.
1:48 US Foreign Institute Language Difficulty Rankings.
3:02 What are your objectives in language learning?
3:32 How much time Russian and Czech took me?
4:28 How many hours does a language require?
5:23 How much time Chinese took me.
5:53 How much time you should spend studying per day.
7:12 Reaching the comfort level is not the end.
8:08 Do what you enjoy.
9:02 Listening, reading and grammar.
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I carry my language learning with me on my iPhone. There I can access my lessons in LingQ, and do my flashcards.
It all counts, but I find it better when we can understand at least half of what we are listening to, that is why I usually combine listening with reading the transcript the way we do at LingQ.
A long long time ago 😂
A long long time ago
昔。
He’s right
@@AzureHadit totally should have gotten partial credit for that .
@@user-sj7nn9xk7n A long long time ago
It is the deliberate focus on gammar that is inefficient. I have done a few videos on the subject. Get on over to LingQ to work on your Spanish. But yes we do need to refer to grammar from time to time.
I look up to you sir! I’m 16, trilingual, and I aspire to learn more ways to speak with and connect with lots of people of different backgrounds
For the last few weeks, I've started listening to my target language via podcasts when I'm traveling to work and doing other things. I don't know if I learn new words this way, but I do know that when I hear familiar words that they become more embedded into my long term memory.
Steve, I’ve listened to quite a number of your pod casts? Thank you for your candid and honest way you deliver.
That's a great video, so informative and very motivating! Thank you!
خیلی ممنونم از شما استیو،
شما اطلاعات خوبی به زبان آموزان میدید.
Thanks Steve! Super helpful :)
Amazing video. I got many answers. Thank you!
thanks Steve ! clear and great answer.
You are human being fantastic, Inspiring, My English Skill have been improving sustantially from that I listening you. Thanks Totals
Bravo. This is the topic I absolutely prefer to.
GREAT! MANY THANKS. VERY USEFUL.
Thank you, very useful!!!
This is a great video. I've watched a lot of your more recent videos, but this I think is actually a gem and one of your best. Some many great pieces of info in this video.
It is a long story, but mostly a lot of reading and occasionally visiting Spain over many years.
This is a very good explanation about how long does it take to speak a foreign language. I am learning a third language at the moment. Second one was learned through a childhood so it is difficult to measure a learning curve. But with this third language that I am learning I can confirm that this explanation is equal to my experience. 1,5 years for a germanic language if you know English to be comfortable (B1 /B2 level). With consistant learning of course.
@marchuckvalentine Certainly not a waste of time, in fact a good thing to do. It is just that in my case I add a hundred words a day to the list of words that I am learning, and many more words are added incidentally by listening and reading. I could not review them all in Anki. I do review my words and phrases in LingQ, but only occasionally. I do not have the time to review them all and still read and listen as much as I do.
Your comments were very helpful thank you!
@Boonweezy I have never had that experience. I work through a text that is more or less at my level. I listen and over time more and more of the target language becomes clear. i have never heard of anyone reacting the way you describe. Why not get on our Forum and describe your experience and see what others have to say?
I want to say thank you Steve Kaufmann for all your videos and advice. They've been a big help and really inspiring for me. I have been studying Italian for a week now and every day I have been putting 3-5 hrs a day or even sometimes 8 hrs. I've never studied another language before and every time I did try to study Italian I would study it wrong and drop it right away. Hopefully I'll be able to speak it one day. Grazie!
I wonder how you’re doing in the language now?
@@J_Trask if he continued most likely fluent
usted puede hablar italiano con fluidez ahora?
@andriusrepsys I agree with both sentiments.
I don't mind taking a year to reach a level of comfort, as I believe this will allow me to fully enjoy more engaging content, which in turn will facilitate my language learning process. Currently, I watch material in my target language, but at times it can feel strange, as I understand it but cannot explain how. I hope that, as I become more proficient, my understanding will improve and I will find greater enjoyment, enabling me to enter a deeper state of flow.
Steven your help is very good for me and help me learn some english thanks god bless you bye best wish your friend Marcos
@eugrus Yeah but the cases and word order cause trouble.
Thank you that was helpful
Yes you right, when I am not on the PC I am reading, I need to, now while I am home I am putting more time
I always say this to me, how much I'd ENJOY..!! Having to Stephen as my English teacher, by the way my native language is Spanish..Really you are great and sometimes I'm impressed cause I am able to understand EVERYTHING you said, which do not happen with somebody else. Saludos Stephen yo hablo fluido ingles, italiano y portugues y por supuesto español sería algo increíble una conversación con ud.
I am living in Slovakia and learning Slovak language. Its so frustrating sometimes. It helps when I listen people talking but i get terrible headache after sometimes.
@pheeria If what you say is true you are a prodigy.
it took me two years to learn english at a medium level (b1).
My aim is to achieve b2 level in one more year.
In my experience, if you want to learn fluent english, Spanish, or Italian, it takes time. You must spend between one and two hours a day during 3 years.
@eugrus Toulky českou minulostí
I'm learning russian and spanish and I'm having a blast
i am learning....italian and hebrew and turkish and arabic.
I lived in mexico 8 years.
i had a mexican wife and a russian wife
geez.... u good
Its been 4 years hows your russian now?
IF you learn the language correctly. It took me 10 years to learn french because I did it wrong like learning only word lists and grammar for the first 6 years. I learnt 95% of my french in the last 2 years with a lot of the thanks to lingq and yabla websites.
@lingosteve I meant that I found German much easier than Russian!!! Getting late here:)
Excelent teacher
@hznfrst I found Russian much easier than Russian. I was just quoting the FSI numbers.
Always had in my mind that I could study two similar languages at the same time, cutting my learning time in half. But realized each language is going to take it's own time. And all I would do is get confused, slowing progress. It's who's ahead at the finish line that counts and I think conquering one and then the other would put me ahead.
@Boonweezy I had the same expierience with Chinese. Try to understand what a word means without reffering to English translation, i.e. focus on the universal meaning. For example sometimes I cannot recall wheter the text I read was in Polish (native) or English. I just remember the meaning. Watching movies in the target language is good for this kind of figuring the language out.
great video, im a native english speaker, "almost" fluent in spanish, but now i'm going all out to learn japanese. i'm studying non stop in my free time, listening to instructional mp3's etc. etc.. my goal is to be functional in japanese in 1 year
Interesting stuff, thanks Steve. 9 years into my Spanish adventure I can vouch for what you say about making/keeping it enjoyable. Not sure I agree about grammar being inefficient though: Isn't this an intrinsic part of the learning process? Do you have a video about how you view this?
Sorry, I was referring to East Asian mostly. I have no experience with Austronesian languages.
I say that if people want to learn a language faster, they should have some means of carrying vocabulary lists of words and phrases so the language can be studied bit by bit throughout the day. Taking peeks at words or phrases and repeating them until they are imbedded firmly in the mind would be very beneficial I believe.
El aprendizaje de un idioma es por vida.
@ Eugene Fishgalov I agree with U. I am studying German at the moment and German is close to English at least when it comes to vocabulary.
How is ur german now? 6 years later
@lingosteve that's how I persuaded myself to learn it.
I learned that the verbs are the engine of a language. If you learn that the other things will go as a train. I'm learning spanish as a dutch.
@hznfrst Yes I have read some of Twain's comments on German, very funny indeed!
@Imyirtshashem Ah, I stand corrected. I had been led to believe that it was a unique characteristic compared to the other Germanic languages. My father is learning German and is somewhere between A2 and B1 and finds this aspect of syntax the most difficult part of the language for him. Anyway, thank you for the correction.
In my opinion if you're able to discipline yourself and keep practicing, half a year or less is needed for decent/alright speaking (not fluent but yeah decent but being able to write well is the hard part. Then again the first language I started going to practice with was mandarin
@toopeek
Sure! I mean, I was in Poland, not speaking, but able to hear speech, at least. So, I am not that prodigy. The crucial thing is to figure out key differences between two languages.
Thanks
C'est bien les "Timelines" que tu as inclus, ça aide à suivre
quel plaisir d'avoir des nouvelles de toi. J'espère te retrouver de nouveau à une de ses conférences des polyglottes.
tnx
Hello from Poland. I speak Polish, English, German, Spanish (a2) and ten letters of Hiragana 😀 How do you refresh the languages you already speak. My German level is C1 and I watch German films every film so this level stays the same. But how you are doing it with 20 languages???? 😁 Hugs from Poznan. Love your videos
Ciao Steve! Nice programme. I got the advanced (C1) level of English some years ago..since then I've been continuing trying to improve. I don't think a C1 is flawless and although I'm happy with my English I still find some difficulties when I watch movies..you know slangs, new words and expressions I've never heard before. So I came to the conclusion that my learning process will take my lifespan. This year I tried to do some Spanish and after 6 months studying 15 minutes a day when I went to Barcelona I was just able to ask information and have some basic conversations. Now, I'm curious..what is your level of the idioms you learnt? Once you said you're C2 in French..how about the others? Grazie..ciao da Cagliari (Sardegna)
the level is overrated....you can see pretty of people with a certificated C1 who don't speak anything
@@rodrigolinscaldas3305 If he is italian it is possible to can communicate basic information in spanish. They are pretty much similar languages.
@lingosteve also, you know, I stayed in Poland, and I REALLY WANTED to learn it.
Thank you for such an honest video, debunking the myth that one can learn a language in 10 days, one month etc. I've been studying Spanish for a year now (30 minute) a day and on top of that, I also turn on spanish subtitles for all the videos I watch on youtube. Now I am at the point of a little more comfortable with Spanish, but still it is a struggle. My ears feel very strained when listening to a spanish video and I do have to have the subtitles to aid me in the understanding.
Now my problem is I can't find mid-level spanish material to read. Most of the reading material are so boring that I just can't stand it. So I am still looking all over the place for some easy non-boring Spanish material and it is not easy to find. How do you looking for reading material that are interesting and not too difficult? I mean I think this is the most difficult thing right now for me.
Yes I am very skeptical of anyone that claims to have learned a language in just a few months. I’m not saying it’s impossible. The US military trains soldiers to become interpreters using INTENSE constant training.
Steve,
How long are you learning the same content?For Example,if you read a chapter of the book,and there is a lot of words that you don't know,maybe 300 or more.How long does it take to understand 80 percent or more in this chapter?
i never actively studied spanish, nor had an interest in studying it, but i have family that speaks spanish, so i essentially 'passively' learned it from occasional exposure to them, over my whole lifetime. Spanish really is an 'easy' language to learn for english speakers tho. I'd say a year of good studying will do it. once u hear it enough that ur brain stops translating in the middle of sentences, ur good to go.
@qzchris Yeah, it is certainly closer to German than it is to English but as far as I'm aware, English syntax is generally closer to Dutch than it is to German. I studied German for a few years back in secondary school and started learning a little Dutch a couple of years ago but decided to stop pretty quickly as I could see it clashing with my Norwegian which is not yet solid.
Thanks 🙏 grandpa
Me with 2 years of Portuguese not being able to really communicate 😎😢 finally spoken Portuguese is beginning to make sense though 😌
@toopeek
they have maaaany words in common. Btw, I decided not to look up in a dictionary - I just read. I've read that book many years ago, but reading in original is always better.
I can communicate in Polish. Speak on regular topics, but not, for example, write or read some classical novels. I am taking next semester courses in Polish, and I am quite scared :)
True.
Any Deutchspeaker here? Am trying to learn that for higher studies purpose. Any tips will be much appreciated. I sort of know english, hindi(native one) and sanskrit.
I think a year is a very long time.
Russian is not my native language but I can speak it "flawless".
So it took me three months (4,5 hrs/week) to be able to communicate and even (I am a bit proud of myself :D) read a novel for children in Polish.
So, just never give up ;)
Today I could study all the day in my target language: English. I already can read and listening and understand 70% more or less but I want someone to chat and I can help in Portuguese. Someone?
I agree, but to understand at least half of what's being spoken one needs to go through this initial phase when there is very little comprehension.
@toopeek
I mentioned that I do know Russian :)
I did not said I was learning Russian. I know it 'flawless', like I said, since I was four.
I used it while learning Polish, i.e. another Slavic language.
it's amazing how you still remember that story 🤣
I'm studying Japanese by myself(though I have a lot of friends and support) and I can say the quick and easy polyglot idea is misled. It will take you a masters degree level of effort to become meaningfully fluent in a strange language. Biggest tip I can give is love the language, love the culture, love the people!
おはよう！ what's your level now? it's 8 months since you have posted this comment and i want to ask you about your experience studying Japanese, because i also study it on my own (but i started a month ago). Could you please tell your opinion on what you have done and how easy or hard it was? thanks!
@@etodillerx2095 I'm curious as well, do tell : )
The only human being I want to be like
I have been studying for almost 12 years and Russian, I have worked on it for some time; one year and half.
Planning to learn German in seven or six years
I'm learning Russian, it's my first second language. So far I agree with what Mr Kaufmann has said in this, and his video on tips for learning Russian. I am at a frustrating stage where I'm crawling through exercises trying to understand which rule I'm supposed to used. But I can even begin to understand news articles on RT.com, only after a few months of really making an effort to put Russian into my daily routine.
I need advice. Right now I am in Japan as a foreign student and have been here for about 3 months. But I feel as if I am not as fluent in Japanese as I should be or as people expect me to be. What do you suggest I should do? Any advice on how to help me learn faster. I need to be able to communicate well with my host families, and potential friends. Also, there is school to worry about.
were you an exchange student there? If that's the case then it's awesome!! I wish i could become one as well back in my school days.
How much we need for French???I ask because they have complicated letters!??
3 years is enough to be efficient in any language with the right amount of effort
I speak english french and arabic. And I want to learn german. I wonder how long it is for me. I guess the worst case should be 900 hours.
I think that in my level in english, I just need have contact with another people, books, etc. Just like that I can improve my vocabolary. Thank you Steve, you are my inspiraction.
I will try 40 hours a week. It's going to cause a lot of mental stress, but it'll be worth it in the end. And now with summer vacation coming up in 3 weeks I'll go hardcore for 4-5 hours every day.
It is indeed a daunting task to start a new language from zero.
Here's a source for the number of hours needed to learn a language that Steve quotes at 1:48 www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/
Kaufman's comments seem pretty reasonable. However, he doesn't mention study with a professional teacher one-on-one. In my Thai study I find this to be indispensable for several reasons. Thai has tones which are difficult for us whose mother tongue is English to hear and difficult to produce. The teacher will correct the student and draw his attention to elements of the sounds, such as tones and rhythm, that he will be hard-pressed to recognize on his own. In my own study it took me a couple of years trying to produce the tones, even with correction, and then within a period of a few weeks I basically got the tones down and can now produce them fairly reliably.
Conversing with natives speakers is very valuable, of course, but they are not teachers and may not know how to give effective correction even if they are willing to.
If you can afford it, a teacher can certainly be helpful. There is, however, a lot that you can do on your own.
While there are a lot of language skills one can learn on one's own, the Thai tones and other unfamiliar phonemes apparently are not among them. Most of the Westerners here in Thailand attempt to learn Thai from various book and tape methods and virtually all of them fail miserably and give up convinced it is impossible. Those who do succeed either study at one of the very few programs with qualified teachers or have a spouse who functions as a teacher. We need correction, because our ears are initially closed to the Thai phonemes.
The other reason that a qualified Thai teacher is essential is that there are no good quality Thai dictionaries that explain connotations and provide examples like the OED or Petit Robert. Without a teacher with advanced knowledge of the Thai language, the learner is never going to grasp the nuances necessary to achieve mastery.
I definitely can't converse in Portuguese and it's been over a year and a half, over an hour a day 😢 my listening skills lack worse than anything
is it possible to take 1year and pass (ESLorELL) English as second?
Up to you.
thanks a lot :D
Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve the English to Russian audio dictionary would be good got over 4000 words
It takes exactly 1,458 hours, 37 minutes, 49.58 seconds to learn a foreign language.
Give or take a few microseconds.
Does this acknowledge Stephen Krashen's insights or not? It's just I was reading his book on the Principles and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, and he was speaking of studies where the study process was 3-10x quicker dependent on study.
It also depends on the person someone people soak languge stuff up like a sponge
I feel that this question is impossible to answer. Too many factors to be considered. Howerver, the more I think about it, maybe a good computer program that could analyze and reasonable assign a value to everything you bring to the table in your attempt to learn language "X", might come up with an answer. Now I'm wondering if this hasn't already been attempted. Yes, sounds like a computer program, programmed "properly" might give a good estimate. Not sure how you could assign motivation, etc.
they say 3000 words presents 95 % of the average daily conversation, if you get your vocabulary up to this number you speak the language... now I moved to France so I've been studying for about a month, I am Czech so latin languages are quiet far to me but you are right that French environment makes it much easier as you learn everywhere you go, gym, buy a train ticket etc... will se how I go but my goal is to be able to understand and have a normal dialog within a year....Jinak jsem moc rad, ze se nekdo snazi ucit cesky, rustinu mam na seznamu po francouzstine....
Milan Pikhart Good luck with your French and then Russian. Moc mi bavilo se ucit Cestinu, chce pokracovat.
I'm doing 2 hours most days right now, about 3 hours a day once or twice a week. i'm trying to build up to more.
I'm not sure how similar the language is.. Maybe Finnish-level of difficulty.. That's a very uneducated guess though lol
I would like to become fluent sometime this summer but that maybe be a little unrealistic. I hope to update on this comment someday when I hit a level where I can have short confortable conversations with people.
I spend about 2 hours a day.
The more you practise with people , the more you learn a language
I want to learn Russian so badly!!!!!
German is the closest language i have heard to english that isnt a different dialect ,but a full language, and it only took me about a year to become comfortable with it. Now having studied it for almost 4 years, i feel that my German is very good and i could go to Germany and make something of myself. Granted i am German, living in America and learned english, but i feel you need to WANT to learn the language and care for it as well as have a reason, or inscentive in order to learn it. The more you care, and the more you want to, the faster or easier it shall be. This was evident in my journey through Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Romanian. Now im trying Russian, and thou it is very hard, i have inscentive and im not learning it because "why not" im learning because i have a reason and i want to.
Afrikaans is actually closer to English than German.
Well i havent studied afrikaans so i wouldnt know. I just know that english is a direct derivative of german and latin, but mainly stemming off of german
German and dutch are easier on the Anglophone ear. When I took German in HS I could sort of understand what the Germans were saying in WWII flicks. However I find French easier to read but really hard to listen too. After having been exposed to Pali, German declensions are nothing.
It takes lifetime
CURRENTLY LEARNING MY THIRD LANGUAGE, MANDARIN (:
Where r u in it now ...i'm learning my third one too (started this week took like a 400 verbs and feel like i understand most of the written phrases but cant really understand spoken ones so ..i'm wondering how did u fix it)
你八月前寫這個comment。你現在的中文怎麼樣？
how long did it take to become almost fluent in spanish?
Its easy