How long did it take you to learn your first foreign language?

Answer 1

It took me 5 monthes to be able to converse in another language.

Answer 2

it really depends at what age u start learning. At a very young age it can take very little time, but as u grow up, it's much slower. My first language was a "foreign" language, so my first "normal" language was learned in kindergarden. Learned in a few months.

Then the second "foreign" language came in 5th grade (it was english btw). Learned it to a conversational levels in about a year, but took a few years more to have a good level.

Then the 3rd foreign language (eww Latin) in 7th grade. Took it up for 4 years but never really got the hang of it, since it wasn't my favorite class.

And now up to the 4th foreign language. I'm not good at it yet, and probably never will. There's just too much on my hands now, don't really have time for time consuming things anymore.

Answer 3

To know it well enough to be comfortable using it in most situations, about a year (six months of study, six months "immersion" in a place that speaks the language).
To be fully fluent, about 4 years.

The next few came easier, since after you learn one other language you tend to get better at the learning process that lets you speak other languages, and your brain is more able to "think" in a language other than your native one. I consider myself fluent now in 5 languages (english, french, japanese, tagalog, spanish), and reasonably conversant in 6 or 7 more :) Languages are fun!

Answer 4

I feel like i was born kowing English. Cuz i wasn't bobrn here. I was born in Haiti, but only satyed for 6 months. So i was only 6 months old when i moved to US. But i feel like i autoatically knew English. But my first forign language was in 6th or seventh grade adn hten it stpped for like a whole year but remembered some when is tarted again in 9th grade. But now im in Sapnish 3. I have been in 2 full years of another language and now starting anohter. So hopefully by end of high school, i'll know three languages.

Answer 5

I studied German at the junior-high level for four years, and did quite well with it. However, at the time, I didn't realize the value of learning languages as much as I do now, so I basically forgot how to speak German completely, although I retained some of my listening comprehension. I started studying German again last year and am currently enrolled in a first-semester intermediate-level German class.

I started learning Spanish in the summer of 2001 when I took an intensive class. I went to school from 9:00 am to about 1:00 pm five days a week that summer. It was the equivalent of studying four semesters' worth of Spanish in that one summer. At the end of that class, I continued university-level Spanish classes for the next year and went to Mexico for about 7 weeks the following summer. Several weeks after returning from Mexico I took a proficiency test called the ACTFL OPI and received a score of "Superior" (the highest possible score). These days I am still highly proficient, although I think that I'm not at my peak as I was back then.

Being a linguist, I also know enough about syntax and phonology to say a couple of convincing-sounding phrases in Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. But I don't really speak these languages. (I only know one verb in Korean, for example.)

These days in addition to learning German in a formal setting, I hope to pick up a little bit of informal Serbian, since a good friend of mine speaks Serbian at home and I would like to be able to communicate with her mother, who speaks little English. (While we aren't able to communicate very well through language, I have to admit that I enjoy her current way of expressing her feelings towards me by giving me hugs and kisses and feeding me lots of Serbian food!)

I think language learning is largely a function of just how much time you spend with a certain language. Although I studied German for a longer time, I have put in many more hours with Spanish. I don't think that a person ever really stops learning a language, so I will always consider myself a Spanish learner, for example, even though my current ability with Spanish basically satisfies my communicative needs. (In fact, I believe that people don't really stop learning their native language either, which many linguists will disagree with me about!)

Answer 6

Im mexican.
And in the chool to get a perfect english i took 4 years in a classroom 4 hours, with 25 persons.

I started when i was 6

Answer 7

Well, im a Spanish native speaker, but i learned english in three long years. But, now i speak it fluently and study at an American College...

Answer 8

well, i learned english in school for 3 years, but i wasnt fluent that much, so when i moved to the U.S. it took me like 600 months to grasp it fluently, and now i talk with barely any accent at all!

Answer 9

almost 3 years i was born in russia