How many hours in total does one need to learn a foreign language?

Question

How many hours in total does one need to learn a foreign language?

Answer 1

For me about 100,000 unless I am in the country where the language is used. Spent 8 years at school learning French and only about 100 words have stuck due to lack of use and was never very good anyway.

Answer 2

dependes on the individual.

Answer 3

Depends on the individual.  My daughter has spent 4 years in a Spanish state school and was 8 when she started.  She only mixes with Spanish kids and is quite bright.  However her friends of the same age have a wider range of vocabularly - but she ofter scores higher in grammar tests at school.

It would take you far longer to learn a foreign language whilst living in the UK and only taking lessons.

Answer 4

depends on the person, children learn a language often in no time at all, because they can absorb information quicker and easier than an adult can. If you were to spend every day in a classroom i reckon it would still take months, it also depends on how proficient you want to be in that language.

Answer 5

I think a few years, not hours.

Answer 6

A lot depends on the complexity of the language and your ability to learn it

Answer 7

I wouldn't think about it in hours.  If you want the basic take a class once a week for a couple hours like a total of about 26 hours plus practicing.  if you want to be fluent probably take a several years and that is everyday and you are in an environment where you can speak it. Bonne Chance!! Viel Gluck!

Answer 8

A friend of mine was trained as a translator in the army.  He went from zero to fluency in Russian in eight months.  I imagine about 30 hours a week, so work it out from there.

Excuse me, Dinkie - my friend was an expert on Dostoyevsky.

Answer 9

It takes years not hours to learn a language. People think it's an easy thing to learn a language but it isn't. Think of a child learning it's first language, it takes years. An adult learns a second language in the same way a child learns a first language. It takes years to perfect. Although I will say I learnt to speak German in a year while living in Germany at the age of 18. I was completely immersed in the culture and language and didn't speak any english the whole time I was there. I was extreemely focused and determined to be able to speak it by the time I left. I was fluent by the time I left.