How long 'till we're fluent? My answer, and a few thoughts on why realistic expectations can take a weight off our shoulders and add a kick of motivation.
TLDL estimates for a native English speaker to reach fluency, studying one hour per day:
- About 2 ½ years for Swedish, Danish, Norwegian,
Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian (or Spanish)
- About 3 years for French (or Spanish)
- About 4 years for German, Indonesian, Malay,
Swahili, or Haitian Creole
- About 5 years for most other language varieties,
including Baltic, Slavic, Turkic, Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, etc.
- About 10 years for Japanese, Korean, Cantonese,
Mandarin, or Arabic
Link to a 1999 paper with conclusions from FSI programs: http://sealang.net/archives/sla/gurt_1999_07.pdf

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