Learn Spanish On Your Own » foreign service institute http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog Spanish learning tips, lessons, product reviews, and more Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:12:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 How Long Does It Take To Learn Spanish? http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2008/12/26/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-spanish/ http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/2008/12/26/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-spanish/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:47:58 +0000 Kyle http://learnspanishonyourown.com/blog/?p=131 The amount of time it takes to learn Spanish varies from student to student depending on a variety of factors such as aptitude, previous language experience (specifically experience with other romance languages). Conventional wisdom holds that it takes between 250-350 hours of core study for the average student to learn to speak Spanish at a functionally-fluent level. Functionally-fluent is not the same thing as “near-native fluency,” instead, it means being able to express abstract ideas and communicate with educated adults without sounding like a child.

The Foreign Service Institute itself allocates about 6 months to the task of teaching a new diplomat Spanish. You might prefer to work at a slower pace than a professional diplomat, but I think the 250-hour number still applies. Note this applies only to core Spanish studies and not outside practice such as reading, watching Spanish TV, and practicing conversation with native speakers.

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