How long did it take you to master a new language?

[travelholicangela]

For people here who speak multiple languages, how many months or years of studying did it take you to confidently say that you could speak a language well? For someone like me wanting to learn several more languages, do I really need to visit a particular country and spend time there for me to be able to master a language?

Looking forward to hearing your replies!

[linguaholic]

Hi Angela

It really depends on the language. As a German native speaker it was really easy for me to learn English. French was a little bit harder but still not a big deal. After that I studied Chinese and in this case it was really necessary to go to China for some time to improve my Chinese skills (mainly in Speaking the language). It is not impossible to study Chinese in another country but you should eventually go there and apply what you learned. If you don't, it is very well possible that Chinese people will not understand a word of what you are saying, because some students of the Chinese language never actually get to the point where they are able to pronounce the tones correctly!

bW

Lingua

[Tyrell]

It took me about two years to fully 'master' (I'm using the term rather loosely here) English. Though, looking back I realize that I wasn't half as good as I thought I was - I wrote several English tweets and Facebook statuses, and they were.. embarrassing, to say the least.

[anotherfullback]

It really depends not only on the language you're learning, but your native language, where you're living, the purposes you're learning the language for, and your own confidence and standards for your language learning.

There is no "easiest language to learn" at all, but you will learn a lot easier and quicker if you're learning a language closely related to your own. For instance, an English native speaker will be able to learn Scots or Dutch much "easier", in general, than if they were trying to learn Tagalog or Xhosa.

You will also inevitably learn more quickly if you're immersed fully in the language, using it constantly from day to day. However, that will usually happen if you're living in a country where that language is the primary language, and in that setting your personal standards for the language will probably rise. If you're only trying to speak the language as a second language at home or something, you probably will feel confident enough to do that more quickly than if you're trying to interact with native speakers in their own country.

I think most of all though it's important not to put too much emphasis on the end goal of "fluency", and rather to focus on each little goal on the way, like being able to hold a quick conversation, then being able to hold a conversation with a native speaker, being able to talk about technical topics and politics etc.

[missbookworm]

I believe that you can never really be an expert in another language if you haven't tried immersing yourself to the language experience itself. First-hand experience is always the best teacher. Before you can be able to master the target language, it will definitely take a lot of time, patience, and hard work. I am actually from the Philippines, and ever since I was a child, I have already been studying the English language.

[lushlala]

I'm far from being proficient in my two chosen languages. I did French for 5 years an was ok with it then, but as I've not practiced for ages, my French's very rusty. I went and lived in Italy and within 3 months of being there, I could speak passable Italian. I think it helped a great deal being among a lot Italians with very little to no knowledge of the English language. Again, I've now lost most of it   I believe living among native speakers and immersing yourself in the culture and lifestyle can boost your learning process considerably and actually fast forward your learning process!

[kurdapia]

It was nice reading all your comments. It made me feel better knowing that I am not alone in my struggle and it only shows that learning a new language is indeed not a walk in the park. I may not be able to do an immersion but I would be happy to be able to be as conversant as I can be.

[lushlala]

@kurdapia Indeed it's not a walk in the park, but we can certainly make it fun. I've always believed that as long as I'm not too hard on myself and I keep enjoying the learning process, I'll keep learning. I think sometimes we push ourselves too hard and end up losing interest because we feel we're not going at the rate we perceive to be right.

**sigh** I too wish I could immerse myself in French and Italian language and culture, because I know for a fact I'd learn super fast.

[Richard.H]

Hello

I pretty much agree with what everyone has posted here already.

To give you some millstones - my educated guess would be 3 years. If you can consistently study a language (systematically mind you) on daily basis then I believe you should reach mastery in the given language.

But like I everybody else has mentioned, the languages you speak and whether or not you're in a country where the language you study is the primary language do factor in.

If you are studying Chinese, in China, you already know Japanese (which would help you with the writing) and maybe some Thai on top of that (making you familiar with tone-based languages) you could possibly be totally fluent in 1 year. Who knows!

All in all though, the most important thing for learning any language is persistence. Learning language is fun (I think ) but definitely not an easy endeavor.

Whatever your goal is - be it a basic conversation or reading books - just be consistent (study X hours a week every week) and one day you will reach your destination without fail.

Needless to say it does help to have a good studying material

Keep that in mind, don't despair, and mainly - have fun!

Richard

[zurcminister]

Mastering a new language would take from one to two years at most but if you are really interested to learn and pretty quick then you can master it in six to eight months to a year. What do you think guys? More power to all of us.

[kurdapia]

@kurdapia Indeed it's not a walk in the park, but we can certainly make it fun. I've always believed that as long as I'm not too hard on myself and I keep enjoying the learning process, I'll keep learning. I think sometimes we push ourselves too hard and end up losing interest because we feel we're not going at the rate we perceive to be right.

**sigh** I too wish I could immerse myself in French and Italian language and culture, because I know for a fact I'd learn super fast.

That is exactly how I feel now. I am demotivated to proceed because I am finding it hard to learn what I ought to. I guess you are right about being too hard on ourselves when the results we expected fall short. I admire those people who had spent years learning on their own. Good for you @lushlala you were able to go to these countries and had an experience using their respective language.

[Trellum]

I'm still learning the basics of dutch, but considering the course the dutch government made us buy to practice for the exam doesn't even come with any kind of grammar bits or clear explanations...  I'd say I'm not doing bad at all. I think I will surely manage to dominate dutch in one year or less. I definitely feel confident my dutch level is near to A1 right now, so if I pay for that Dutchpod101 sub for one year and i study daily.. I'll surely dominate in after one year or less  

It will surely take me less time to dominate dutch than dominate English, I'm 100% certain, even more now that I have the help of Memrise.

[rollybooz]

I guess it really depends on how often you use it. If you're learning a language and trying to use it on a daily basis, which many of us don't especially if you are not staying/exposed frequently to native speakers, then you naturally will pick it up faster as the natives are there to correct your pronunciations/sentence structures on the spot. If you are only learning it online or speaking it to yourself/another fellow learner, chances are you may reinforce your own mistakes with one another!

Being a native English and Mandarin speaker, I embarked on picking up German at a language school. However, that process took me about 4 years because I was only speaking German twice a week for 3 hour sessions! It does not help that the grammar for German is so much more complex than that of English (to me at least  ). My advice is to not think about how long you need to be proficient, but to be daring enough to use the new language as much as you can and get corrected by the natives. Eventually, you'll realise that you're actually not too bad anymore! Enjoy the process!

[1charlotte7]

It took me 4 years to learn German, but I studied a lot at school and I devoted a lot of my personal time to it. The same with Spanish. I found one-on-one lessons very effective and I think speaking is key!

Take a look at this article. It shows 10 mistake that people make which often hold them back from learning a language:

http://coursefinders.com/en/studentlibrary/1343/10-mistakes-people-make-when-learning-a-foreign-language

Good luck!

[AExAVF]

It depends on several factors, such as overall interest and desire to learn, the efforts being put at studying the language, the difficulty of learning certain aspects of the language, and time spent.  Mastering a language doesn't mean neglecting to study the same even after you have accomplished a certain goal such as having completed a degree or diploma in foreign language.  Continuous study, as well as an insatiable hunger to learn more, will help you achieve mastery of the language.

[KimmyMarkks]

I've studied a language for 8 years in school. However, because I did not use it in everyday life I am still unable to speak it well.  I think it really depends on how often you are using and speaking a foreign language that will determine how long it will take you to master it.  If you are immersed in a place where only that language is being spoken you will pick it up much faster then just studying and not really using the language.  

I also believe that once you stop speaking it continuously it is easy to lose this language skill.

[Chris_A]

I think the hardest for me, was French. I have studied it for at least 4 years in school and high school,and I am still not able to speak it well, nor am I able to understand every word or sentence in French. I am far away of speaking and reading it fluently, and, while I can generally understand someone speaking French, most of the time, I don`t think that I will ever master it. Really frustrating.

[Wanda Kaishin]

The question is meaningless without defining what is meant by "mastering". Please use CEFR levels for clarity. Other unknowns (L2, L1, the learner's background, etc) have already been pointed out by others  here.

[hungary93]

It took 1 year to me to get advanced level in English, I went to a private teacher twice a week and it was a really good experience. I needed the language exam for my university application. It was almost 5 years ago, and looking back I sometimes get sad how much I forgot since then.

[宇崎ちゃん]

As Wanda said, "mastering" has some fuzzy edges to the word.
Like what do you find "mastering"?
Enough to converse in the language, enough to sound (nearly) like a native, or enough to know all the political and/or scientific words too?

I used to aim for the first one, but I changed my mind and aim for the second one these days.

As for "mastering" by the second definition (enough to sound (nearly) like a native), it simply clicks at some point.
As a beginner, you learn a lot in the first few weeks and then you 'slack off'.
As an intermediate, you feel like you're stuck at one point, but actually aren't.
As an 'expert', everything starts to make sense and if something doesn't, learning the new things is barely a problem.

[KimmyMarkks]

I think the only way to really master a foreign language is to surround yourself with this.  This could take either growing up in a house hold that speaks it or living in a foreign country where the language is spoken.

I studied a language for 8+ years and am still having a difficult time speaking it. 

[bmcleod19]

I've been studying French for a while and there is still so much I can learn. When I hear other people speaking it, it still takes large amounts of concentration to try and understand what they are saying.