How long would it take to learn fluent German in Germany after 5 years of high school German?

Question

After high school I plan on going to college in Germany for about a year. By the end of my senior year (I'm a sophomore right now) I will have taken 5 years of German. So how long should I spend in Germany before I go to college there to become completely fluent. I generally grasp languages things really fast and I'm a quick learner.

Answer 1

A couple of things as a recommendation:

How quickly you will learn it depnds on you. We had a worker in my company who's been living in Germany for more than 10 years and still spoke a funny mixture of English and German. But everyone could understand him and it made him unique.
If you are a quick learner, you should be able to bring yourself to a sufficient level within a few monthes.
You should try to find german friends and ask them to talk german with you. Most Germans do speak English and want to be friendly or polite and talk English to you. Some might want to train their English skills and do the same.
Everyone (also at the universities) will know how hard it is to express yourself in a foreign language, because everyone had to learn at least one foreign language in school. Therefore Germans are usually very tolerant if your German is not perfect.

There are a lot of things that you will not learn in school. E.g. if you ask a German friend "Wie geht es Dir?", the answer frequently might be "Beschissen" (I feel like sh**). What doesn't mean he is going to die or sick, it's just the german way maybe ...

A lot of Universities offer so called "Integration courses" where you can improve your German and be prepared for life in Germany.

And if you really are a quick learner, you will get around easily.

Answer 2

well, I am good with languages with too, but I studied German a year in college before I went to Germany for 11 months, and I am still not fluent. I also know people who studied German all in hs and a couple years in college and went to Germany and are still not fluent. And one thing that might be hard in Germany is even meeting people to really practice with. Just the act of being in Germany won't improve your German all that much if you don't actively use it. You can always go back to Germany too and study abroad there during college. You don't have to be 100% fluent before you start school.

Answer 3

If you are a fast learner, it could take maybe a year or 1.5 to learn it fluent. It will help that you will be around the culture and hear it all the time too. I have taken spanish for the last 4 years and have been around spanish speakers a lot, I generally learn fast too, but I am in no way, shape or form fluent in spanish.

Plus, a lot of spanish speakers speak slang, and in school I was taught the proper way to speak, so a lot of the times, its still hard to understand spanish. Not to mention that some spanish words are pronounced differently in each spanish country and there are different variations of the language. I once worked with some workers from Guatemala, Mexico,and Venezuela, and even thought they all spoke spanish; often times they did not understand some thing they were saying to each other. German may be the same way. You may be able to speak the basic and order from a menu, but for fluency, that will take some time.

Good luck anyways.

Answer 4

As with most languages, there are slang's, that you will have to learn! But, having taken German for five years, I would say that you should be okay, as is! It will probably take you a month or so to acclimate to the slang especially if you are a fast learner!

Good Luck

Answer 5

Maybe conversational, not sure about fluent.

Answer 6

It depends on many different issues.

Answer 7

well, you should be pretty close to fluent as it is... i think no more than a month of total immersion should see you speaking quite fluently