How long does it take for an English speaker to be proficient in (insert the language you would like to learn here) ?

I found an interesting list from the National Virtual Translation Center’s website about a year ago.  The list had categories of languages based on their difficulty to native speakers of English.  Much to my dismay, I can’t just provide you the link because it is no longer online.  So I will try my best to relay everything here along with my interpretation.

The list was supposedly created by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of State.  Its purpose was to group languages based on the length of time it takes for an FSI student to achieve Speaking 3: General Professional Proficiency in Speaking (S3) and Reading 3: General Professional Proficiency in Reading (R3).  Detailed information on these proficiencies will be provided in a later blog.

Naturally, the list only applies to languages taught at the FSI.  The student profile at the FSI is: almost 40 years old, native English speaker, has a good aptitude for formal language study, and has knowledge of several foreign languages (please see below for my interpretation for this student attribute).  In addition to class hours, FSI students dedicate 3-4 hours everyday for self-study.

So here is my interpretation of the list.  I put the list here for the purpose of educational discussion.  It is just a general guideline, not a definite rule.  Depending on your motivation (notice how I put this factor first!), language aptitude, available time, age, knowledge of other foreign languages, and other factors, you might take more or less time to achieve the S3 and R3 proficiencies.  For example, you know from my previous post http://arcticchill.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/scandinavian-languages-danish-norwegian-and-swedish/ that the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish) are mutually intelligible.  If you are already S3 and R3 in one of the 3 Scandinavian languages, then you will NOT need another 23-24 weeks to learn the other 2.

Do not be scared or discouraged if you are interested in languages from Categories III and IV.  You just need some more time to achieve S3 and R3 proficiencies.  On the other hand, DO NOT think that languages from Categories I and II require little or no effort.  Some of these languages have false friends (words that look like English words but have  very different meanings).  English is NOT mutually intelligible with any language from Categories I and II.

Category I (languages closely related to English, 23-24 weeks or 575-600 class hours): Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish

Category II (36 weeks or 900 class hours unless otherwise noted): German (30 weeks or 750 class hours), Indonesian, Malaysian, Swahili

Category III (languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English, 44 weeks or 1100 class hours): Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Estonian*, Finnish*, Georgian*, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian*, Icelandic, Khmer, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian*, Nepali, Pashto, Persian (Dari, Farsi, Tajik), Polish, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Tagalog, Thai*, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese*, Xhosa, Zulu

Category IV (languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers and requires 2nd year of study in-country, 88 weeks or 2200 class hours): Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin), Japanese*, Korean

*According to the author of the list, languages followed by asterisks are typically somewhat more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category.  Again, this is a generalization.

I don’t know if you can use this list in reverse.  Take German as an example.  I have heard that it is easier for a German speaker to learn English than for an English speaker to learn German.  I have no way of verifying such claim.  You probably can still use this list to get a general idea.  Nevertheless, I hope that you find this list helpful!

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