A Map Showing How Much Time It Takes English-Speakers to Learn Foreign Languages
These language categorizations are famous and have been around since the 50&#x27;s - not sure what the colored map really adds.  When looking at the suggested number of hours, keep in mind that these measurements are for:<p>* a Foreign Service Officer (read: elite, meritocratically-selected diplomat, usually with a background in humanities, who is probably in command of another foreign language already).<p>* 5 hours&#x2F;day of continuous study, with classroom instruction at the FSI&#x27;s internal language school (which is considered the gold standard in language education).  Don&#x27;t expect the same results from self-study with a textbook and some subtitled movies.<p>* Reaching a B2-C1 level of proficiency.  That&#x27;s certainly conversational, but far from fluent.  Consider that for Russian, the passive vocabulary of someone with a C2 proficiency is about twice that of someone with a C1.<p>I would never want to discourage someone from learning a foreign language, but the notion that one could reach professional proficiency in French within ~6 months is unrealistic for 99% of learners.  Even if you <i>lived</i> there and devoted your entire days to study, it would be difficult to ramp up that quickly.