How many years does it take to get fluent?

How many years does it take to get fluent? What if I spend an hour a day for months, what will my speaking look like in a year?

I think you can speak right away with few lessons under your belt. Basic conversations could be started right away. I would define being fluent when, you stop translating word for word and start thinking in the new language, when you can watch Spanish television and understand the gist of what they are talking about. If you can read a Spanish book, if you can read a newspaper in Spanish. Sometimes, I get disappointed because I felt like all I do is say "Buenos dias" and "¿Como estas?. I happen to really like the Spanish language and that is my biggest motivator. Good luck! Just keep doing it.

I have been studying for almost a year, and I study for at least one hour a day; most days two hours per day during several time periods, using different study methods. The only days I have missed studying in the last year was the day after I seriously injured my hand and the day of surgery to repair the injury...oxycodone and serious brain use do not mix. One of the things I have been doing is meeting with a tutor once a week, to practice speaking among other things. Just in the last few weeks I have felt like I can carry on a basic conversation with her; I am able to express simple ideas in simple terms and am getting to the point where I understand her questions and can respond reasonably quickly. But as I wrote in your other post about fluency, I compare learning another language as an adult to a child learning his or her first language and in that regard I am quite young. I hope to return to Cuba at the end of this year. At one time I wanted to be "fluent" when that happened. Now I know that is an unrealistic goal and I will be happy to be able to communicate at a very basic level. I think I have at least another 1 to 2 years of diligent study before I will consider myself "fluent," which to my mind is being able to speak, listen, write and read Spanish easily and with reasonably few vocabulary and grammar errors. A few years ago I was interested in the ideas in Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Outliers, one of which was that true mastery of any subject can be attained after 10,000 hours of study. I have often wondered if that idea applied to language learning.

I can talk a lot in Spanish and quite fluently but its when they answer I have a problem hearing all the short words. I think when you hear you have no control of the content whereas if you are determined you can say a lot depending on how hard you work. For me the real test is when you can understand without panicking. Might be just me. For me its the comprehension of spoken Spanish in real life that is the problem

I like the idea of studying at least one hour a day. The problem is that there are days when I don't have one hour to spare unless I stay up late and lose sleep. I think it is a good goal to aim for though. Maybe on the weekend I can study extra to make up for the time I lost during the week.

Hola a todos. Yes, I share the goal of fluency with all of you. I have been studying the language a long time, more seriously the last two years. For me there are at least two factors that will help me reach my goal. One, is that I study and practice every day. I think the amount of time is less important than the consistency of some every day. The other factor is speaking, speaking, and more speaking. I need to use what I know every day and keep building on that. My learning is not dependent on my work, or school, it is simply to embrace my Spanish speaking friends and their culture. And, I can honestly say that being in this forum has been a bonus for me. Muchisimas gracias a todos.

My goal is an hour a day, but occasionally I miss a day because I am really busy that day. I agree that consistency is the key. I read in a Rocket language lesson that you remember more at the beginning of your study and at the end, so it is best to have a few start times and a few end times in d day.

I guess it is cold comfort that most of my fellow learners have the same challenge. It is one thing to translate a sentence on the screen and even speak it aloud. It is quite another thing to listen to a native speaker rattle off a few sentences and only recognize a word or two. Not only do most native speakers speak more rapidly and shorten words, but they may well not be speaking grammatically either! "Lentamente, por favor"

John, another dose of cold comfort may come from the realization that people learning English as second language have similar problems. Maybe not so much speaking quickly, but leavin' off g's, not to mention all of the slang and informal words we use. When I was working with a Peruvian tutor she was always asking me what some informal word I used in a sentence meant.

it is depend on how much time u spend and offer u did to learn. however, the practice and involving in the languages is the key to speed ur way to fluency. good luck.