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How long does it take to learn a language

  Tags: Time to learn
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
slav
Bilingual Triglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 5007 days ago

43 posts - 54 votes 
Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, English*
Studies: Spanish, Swedish

 
 Message 1 of 5
19 May 2011 at 1:23am | IP Logged 
By that, I mean, a language that is in the same language family as one you already know.

English is my secondary native language(well... I think in English, which is weird because it's not exactly my native language), and I'm going to learn Swedish. I'm fully committed to it, I'll study everyday. I know they're both Germanic so therefore related.

How long might this take? I'm still kinda in my first month of learning it with limited resources(I'm getting a bunch of books on it soon), and can barely understand any of it.
1 person has voted this message useful



Keilan
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5086 days ago

125 posts - 241 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 2 of 5
19 May 2011 at 1:49am | IP Logged 
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Language_Learning_Difficulty_fo r_English_Speakers

This is a list of (very approximate) learning times for various languages assuming you are an English speaker. Swedish is listed in the 575-600 hour category (although you should read the article for specifics, it is aimed at 40-ish year olds with some language experience. However, I would say 600 plus or minus about 200 hours (probably plus, at least for me) is a fair guess. Although it varies by person, study method, etc.

Anyways, if you study hard (3-4 hours a day), it's quite possible to be able to understand a bit within 3-4 months, and speak easily in a bit longer. Now if you're talking mastery (native speakers hardly know you aren't Swedish) it will take many years, but getting by in Sweden is much more doable.

Anyways, this is all VERY approximate, so don't treat it as guaranteed numbers. Just a guideline of sorts.
6 persons have voted this message useful



slav
Bilingual Triglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 5007 days ago

43 posts - 54 votes 
Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, English*
Studies: Spanish, Swedish

 
 Message 3 of 5
19 May 2011 at 2:10am | IP Logged 
Thank you for that. :D I'm 14 and know 3 languages... so I'm thinking that'll make it easier for me. I've heard that younger people have an easier time learning languages.

I'll only really have time to study 2 hours each day at the least...

I won't treat it as a universal number that applies to all people trying to learn Swedish, but at least it can tell me whether it'll be less than a year, or more than a year, or several years, etc.
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dleewo
Groupie
United States
Joined 5818 days ago

95 posts - 131 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin

 
 Message 4 of 5
19 May 2011 at 2:22pm | IP Logged 
Keilan wrote:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Language_Learning_Difficulty_fo r_English_Speakers



For those who don't realize, the above URL has an extra space which must be removed for it to work. Here is the URL fixed:

Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers

Edited by dleewo on 19 May 2011 at 2:23pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



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