Gwendoline
Community Tutor
Language Difficulty Ranking The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has created a list to show the approximate time you need to learn a specific language as an English speaker. For example French is classified level 1 with around 24 weeks. Turkish is level 4 with more than 44weeks. What do you think about it? Give your opinion in comment. Below the map
May 3, 2021 12:30 PM
Comments · 11
2
There are a few things that need to be added here to give some context. I recall reading somewhere that this assumes that students study in a very controlled environment with no more than 3 other students in the class and an intensive 4 hour/day schedule for 5 days/week. And even then, this isn't the time it takes to get to native fluency but rather advanced or perhaps B2.
May 4, 2021
2
je pense que oui de coté vocabulaire la langue francaises a bcp de mots similaires à l'anglais mais du côté prononciation non ?
May 3, 2021
1
As far as the timelines go, I think that’s a bit misleading, but as far as the ranking of difficulty for native English speakers learning other languages goes, I think that is about right.
May 4, 2021
I'm from Bosnia and Herzegovina and I think this is not really true. I mean you can't speak Slavic languages with 44 weeks, but you can learn a lot, from vocabulary to grammar. If you have someone to practice with you in conversation, the results will be better of course. PS. I'm looking for a language partner who speaks English. If anyone wants to help me, please text me. 😊 I speak my native language Serbian and also Croatian and Bosnian, so I can help you with these languages if you are interested.
May 3, 2021
I always find this attempt to categorise languages by difficulty questionable. What sort of level of fluency is being aimed at? Is written, spoken and oral fluency all being weighted equally? I’m surprised that Spanish is often assessed as an easy language to learn. It’s easy to get to a basic level of Spanish. But at an intermediate and advanced level there are many complexities in Spanish grammar for the English speaker. Got most people I suspect it’s going to take an good two years of part time study even living in Spain to get really good. The reverse is also true. I often meet people living in the UK whose English even after 20 years isn’t great. Learning languages is rewarding because it takes real effort.
May 29, 2021
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