Namaste/Hello/Bonjour Everyone,

It’s been more than 3 years now that I have been learning French and according to what I understood from the Internet is that I am fluent in French. Yes, I said it for the first time. However, I am aware that I am not an expert, it only means that I can write & converse about almost everything with some errors here & there.

Since the time I started using this language, one question out of many I often get to ask is: How long does it take to learn a language? It’s not straightforward to answer this one. Hence, I will be describing everything here that I have learned throughout my journey of learning a language in this post. Firstly, I will talk about “Different ways to learn a language”, secondly, I will try to share some insights on “what does it even mean to know a language”, and finally, I will talk about “The duration it takes to learn” & “how much time it took me”.

“Learning another language is like becoming another person.” — Haruki Murakam

There isn’t one way to learn a language

During my journey, I have encountered all sorts of learners, those who just started learning, those who began already & are having a tough time, and finally the ones who are having a hard time progressing. They all had one thing in common — They didn’t know how to move forward. Because, in my opinion, most of them think that there is magic or a standard way to learn a language but that’s not the case. Of course, there are a few factors, strictly speaking, that are inevitable such as grammar, that’s something everyone has to cover.

Besides, I have also met some learners who never took any classes but are comfortable in speaking. On the other hand, certain who have been taking classes for years still struggle to express themselves or even cleared level B2/C1 and can’t even have a significant conversation properly.

I believe language learning is like learning to live a different life, you have to find your way through your struggle and enjoy the way that suits you & your objective. Perhaps, you just want to be able to speak or it could be something you would like to make a career out of it, which is completely your choice.

A scenario I can recall in my early stages of learning is — Once when I was in France, I found myself among people who were able to do basic talk whereas I couldn’t, however, I was able to write well comparatively. It was simply because I was not being socially active & practising my oral whereas, with others, it was the other way around. In the same context, I have met some extroverted people for whom it was effortless to practice speaking. On the other hand, if you are an introvert, it will be challenging for you to train your tongue. Even though I consider myself an ambivert who can commence a conversation, it was the case with me too. So, you see it also depends on your personality and the kind of activities you get yourself involved in.

Subsequently, then you have videos for very beginners (with subtitles), small stories side-by-side with English translation and language learning applications (free), all over the internet. I don’t see any impediment of any sort, all you need to start & keep learning.

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Are you fluent in French?

Yes, I believe I am. Nevertheless, I still wonder sometimes, what does it mean to be fluent in a language? Does it mean to be able to talk as natives? Or does it mean to conquer that mountain of level C2? Or both? Well again, it’s not simple to answer because even people having a language as their mother tongue do lots of errors while speaking & writing in particular.

I have a few French friends with whom I usually practice my oral skills & there are a few times I have witnessed that comparatively, it’s me who has a better grip of grammar rules. So what is it? Interestingly, it’s normal. Because they haven’t learned the way we, learners, are learning. For an instance, even though I don’t know all the grammar rules of Hindi, I do speak Hindi fluently.

There is an amazing Podcaster I actively follow to improve my French and he posted a video on YouTube not long ago which explains the same thing. Click here to see (there are English subtitles if you want to watch). According to his explanation, once you cross level B2, you are theoretically considered to be someone who can hold a conversation about almost anything (with a few errors certainly), however, I think the reality can be different.

Thus, after this level, it’s up to you how far you would like to go and consider yourself a fluent speaker in that language.

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The duration depends on you

You have to define your objective to be able to answer this aspect. I have seen people being able to have basic (daily life) conversations just after 3 months of learning. I have another memorable experience to share here:

After about 6 months of my stay in France, I went to meet a manager of a Bar to get a part-time job as a Bartender. After having had an initial discussion he asked, do you speak French? I replied: Non, un peu (a little). Well, that’s where he crushed me by saying a lot of things. It was simply because according to him, people can do basic talk after 6 months of learning whereas I couldn’t. That’s when it hit me hard and I started being sincere in my learning.

Today, thanks to the Internet you can learn almost everything and language is surely one of those things. If you want to write, start practising writing in that language from day-1. If you want to speak, start speaking. A year ago, I asked a person, who wanted to start learning, what his objective was. He responded that he didn’t think about it. Well, my mind started thinking that either he will struggle or he will drop after a few weeks or months, which happens often.

“The only normal way to begin speaking in a new language is to begin speaking badly” ― Greg Thomson

A simple goal like — “To be able to introduce yourself” in the first 1–2 weeks. And BAMN, here you go, you speak a bit in 2 weeks. The next goal could be, “define your day in 2–3 lines” for the first 3–4 weeks and here in 1 month, you will be able to write a small summary about yourself & your daily routine. In brief, you must have motivation & objective, or else you will stumble.

To answer the question of the day, if you continue your spirit in learning, it will take somewhere around 6 months to 3 years in my opinion.

About 6 months, if

• You spend almost all day learning/practising all the aspects of a language
• You write, listen, speak, read, breathe & live in that language,
• You are motivated, happy & in a good state of mind:
  Same as with other skills, you must be in a good mental state to accelerate progress. One cannot learn something if he/she is sad/angry/anxious/stressed/etc. Particularly in language learning, as it requires your thoughts engagement.

And 2–3 years if you do passive learning with sincerity, what it means is –

• You spend about 8–12 hours a week
• You are consistent & motivated
• You work on all the aspects: reading, writing, listening & speaking.

This is what I think after 3+ years of my learning. I have had ups & downs in my journey. In the first half of it, I used to be active but then I kept for about 10 hours per week and I am still going. My current goal is to enrich my vocab & get comfortable with the language with almost no errors. Then eventually, to achieve a level like natives with eloquent vocab.

I hope I will get there very soon & I hope you achieve your objectives too. If you read so far, I hope this post helped you get some ideas or perspectives on language learning in general. I would love to know your thoughts if you have any on my writing.

Connect with me on LinkedIn! 🙂

Thank you & Happy learning!