Work out time to learn a language instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.
The Foreign Service Institute categorises languages by difficulty for English speakers, from 600 hours for Spanish or French to 2200 for Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese and Korean. Reaching 70% of a Category III target needs 630 hours, which at eight hours a week is 78.75 weeks - about eighteen months.
Hours required
hours = category baseline x target proficiency
Time required
weeks = hours required / study hours per week
They describe intensive full-time classroom study with native instructors. Self-study typically needs considerably more hours for the same result.
Substantially. A Spanish speaker learning Portuguese may need a third of the baseline hours because of shared vocabulary and grammar.