How many years does it take you to learn a foreign language?

[Alan]

Hi Amy,

Nothing to do with your answer but the look on that cat's face is beginning to worry me! It looks at me as if it's disapproving of all the horrid thoughts and things I've said about cats. Can you arrange it so that the eyes look the other way?

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Cool Expressions

[Jav_Knot]

yes, I do, but my memory is not normal, that's why I need it.

[Yankee]

[MarkTime]

To be frank, I think you all have fallen into the usual trap of discussing childhood first language acquisition, and, to what degree we define fluency, and you should avoid that temptation.

There is a difference between someone has moved to another country and is now forced to communicate in the local dominate language, and can no longer use their native language....however, even that isn't necessary to discuss, the question implied that you are still in your native country, using your native tongue every day, and how long does it take to acquire a second language to the level of fluency.

The answer is well over 5 years, I believe more often, more than 8 years. If you said less, you were not being honest in any way, shape or form...or you are pure genius. So either I think you are a recalcitrant liar, or a genius...take the insult or complement. But it does not take 1 year.

And I think it is quite a shame that the answer cannot be just plainly stated. Because there are lot of people who are looking to learn a language, and we should be able to give a plain answer.

5 years minimum. No shame in 8 years or more. The fact is, learning by studying 1 hour a day, is going to take a long time because you have 20,000 thousand words to learn, and very little practice to speak.

By the way, I live in an English speaking country, and I work with immigrants all the time. The story about the immigrant who came and thrived, only knowing 3 words of English...is common. What I have never heard is the story about the person who learned English first, and then moved.

While it would not be a dramatic story of survival....its telling that I've met thousands who have learned English after moving, and never one who learned English before moving....everyone wanted to know English before they moved...and some of them tried for years, even at a University...they all have the same story (I had to learn after I arrived).

I'm sorry I'm almost very angry at the person who said 1 year. From talking with literally thousands, I just don't find that story to hold true, and it is so destructive to those trying to learn.

[Diverhank]

I agree with MarkTime...learning a foreign language to a fluent level takes many years...The survey says 35% could learn a language in less than a year... I'd say it depends on how you define "acquire a foreign language". Many people would say they know a language after being able to say a few phrases...to me...you are only fluent in a language, say English, after you watch Jay Leno and get all of his jokes.

You can learn enough about a language and say and understand a few sentences in much less time than that but to be fluent is another matter. I was recently in Mexico on vacation...most of the Mexicans in their 20's and 30's who I met spoke some English (albeit haltingly) and they all started to learn English since kindergarten... I wouldn't classify them as fluent in English... un poco is more like it.

[Lost_Soul]

Yeah, before asking that question, you have to define what you think the aquisition of English is.
There are lots of people who really believe that knowing how to reply to "How are you?" is enough and there's no point in advansing any further. The problem is when they face a real person who speaks English from the beginning they cant understand him/her and write it off on his bad pronunciation. They never consider that their English just sucks balls.

[Torsten]

[NinaZara]

Hello everybody!

I need to say this first, I miss you guys!! And guess what? I am writing from home, I mean my real home, in MALAYSIA! It has been two weeks since I left Japan, but so much has been going on, it feels like just yesterday!

Anyway, back to the poll, I put mine 4 years. The second foreign language I know is Japanese. Well, I spent 2 years learning Japanese from zero, in Malaysia. We spent 4 hours everyday for solely Japanese and the rest of the time for other subjects, also in Japanese. Man, that was crazy. For Mathematics, it was still OK but for subjects that needed reading?
Anyway somehow we survived and by by that time I had past the Japanese Profiency test Level 2, with level 1 the best.

The problem was, when I came to Japan, I couldn't speak! At least not without constructing sentences in my mind first. And understanding professors was the worst part. I even asked one professor to slow down a bit and he told me I was not the only one attending the class, which was true.

What he said, but I still agree with me. (Kidding!)

I realized one thing about listening, I only had trouble listening to male speakers. The voice and the speed, were just infeasible. And that was a major problem because all my classmates and professors were male! Lucky me, haha.

So what I did was, make friends! Most were very, very shy but many were very cool and oh, such great helpers! They helped me get all the latest songs, for listening and Manggas to make me more familiar with everyday expressions ( which was very hard for me to finish because I don't enjoy comics,so I switched to Magazines).

I did this the first year in Japan and I did improve. In terms of listening and speaking. I socialized more, joining the Foreign Students' Association of my university, and other clubs. Also, I refused to speak English because it interfered with my perfecting my Japanese skill.

All the pleasure ended when my studies got tougher. So I my social life was restricted to only in the campus, which was not bad because I still got to socialize with most of my friends.

Also no matter how easy and comfortable I feel with this language I still make mistakes.