Learning a foreign language is essential. Any budding future translator knows that the first step to becoming a translator. Is to well you know, learn the foreign language that you wish to be a translator for. One of the most common question people have before they begin is. How long will it take me to learn the foreign language?
How long it will take you to learn a foreign language will be affected by a large number of factors. Such as: your native tongue, the languages you grew up around. How long you’d be willing to spend each day learning. But luckily for us, again the FSI has provided us with an infographic on how long it should take you to learn a language.
*This was made concerning native English speakers
**Unclassified languages are Celtic languages
When I learnt a foreign language
I can personally relate to this. As I have learnt and so I can now speak 10 foreign languages (as well as my native English). One of the languages I speak is Russian (a category IV language), it took me around 40 weeks to learn. So I learnt it slightly faster than the average. Another language that I can speak is Spanish (a category I language). It took me around 30 weeks to learn, so slightly more than the average.
I would love to hear about your language learning stories. And how long it took you to learn them. Please remember, if you are a translator looking to work with us. Please feel free to contact us here and we can have a chat.