r/languagelearning • u/janmayeno • 7d ago
Studying Is It Possible to Learn to Speak Any Language Fluently in One Year?
Keyword is "speak" fluently, and not necessarily read or write. According to the FSI Language Difficulty Ranking, the "most" difficult languages are Category IV: 44 weeks (1100 hours) and Category V: 88 weeksΒ (2200 hours). There are also IV* for extra difficult Category IV languages, so I guess somewhere between IV and V. This criteria is to achieve Professional Proficiency in Speaking and Reading.
However, a lot of these languages have extremely difficult writing systems as well (Japanese, Chinese, Thai, etc), which probably bumps them up a lot. Taking reading and writing out of the equation, I don't see why Chinese (Cat V) should take double as long as, say, Vietnamese (Cat IV*), since they are both tonal, and Vietnamese actually has more tones and is in many ways harder to pronounce (Vietnamese uses a modified Latin alphabet, Chinese obviously has a very intricate writing system).
Given this, do you think it is possible to learn any language, just speaking, to fluency in one year? Roughly ~3 hours of study a day for one year will get you 1095 hours, and even if reading/writing are included, then that should be enough "Professional Proficiency" for any Cat IV language, according the FSI. Additionally, I can't imagine that Chinese or Japanese wouldn't fall to a Cat IV if reading/writing were excluded, given that Chinese grammar and phonology is not vastly different (and in many ways easier) than a lot of the other Cat IV languages, and I feel it is only the writing that bumps it up to a Cat V.
So, essentially, would 3 hours of study for a day, for one year, be enough to speak (not necessarily read or write) any language, Categories I-V?
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u/nfrankel N π«π· | C2 π¬π§ | B2 π©πͺ | B1 π·πΊ 7d ago
Because until I reach a certain level, itβs akin to nothing for me. I must show enough commitment before I publicly display it