FSI's Experience with Language Learning
The Foreign Service Institute's School of Language Studies (SLS) offers instruction in over 65 languages, with course length and curricula varying to accommodate a range of language proficiencies, from basic to advanced. The following language learning timelines reflect 70 years of experience in teaching languages to U.S. diplomats, and illustrate the time usually required for a student to reach “Professional Working Proficiency” in the language, or a score of “Speaking-3/Reading-3” on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale (full scale available here). These timelines are based on what FSI has observed as the average length of time for a student to achieve proficiency, though the actual time can vary based on a number of factors, including the language learner's natural ability, prior linguistic experience, and time spent in the classroom.
Category I Languages: 24-30 weeks (600-750 class hours)
"World languages" - Languages more similar to English.
|
Danish (24 weeks) |
Dutch (24 weeks) |
French (30 weeks) |
|
Italian (24 weeks) |
Norwegian (24 weeks) |
Portuguese (24 weeks) |
|
Romanian (24 weeks) |
Spanish (24 weeks) |
Swedish (24 weeks) |
Category II Languages: Approximately 36 weeks (900 class hours)
|
German |
Haitian Creole |
Indonesian |
|
Malay |
Swahili |
|
Category III Languages: Approximately 44 weeks (1100 class hours)
"Hard languages" - Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English. This list is not exhaustive.
|
Albanian |
Amharic |
Armenian |
|
Azerbaijani |
Bengali |
Bulgarian |
|
Burmese |
Czech |
Dari |
|
Estonian |
Farsi |
Finnish |
|
Georgian |
Greek |
Hausa |
|
Hebrew |
Hindi |
Hungarian |
|
Icelandic |
Kazakh |
Khmer |
|
Kurdish |
Kyrgyz |
Lao |
|
Latvian |
Lithuanian |
Macedonian |
|
Mongolian |
Nepali |
Polish |
|
Russian |
Serbo-Croatian |
Sinhala |
|
Slovak |
Slovenian |
Somali |
|
Tagalog |
Tajiki |
Tamil |
|
Telugu |
Thai |
Tibetan |
|
Turkish |
Turkmen |
Ukrainian |
|
Urdu |
Uzbek |
Vietnamese |
Category IV Languages: 88 weeks (2200 class hours)
"Super-hard languages" - Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers.
|
Arabic |
Chinese – Cantonese |
Chinese – Mandarin |
|
Japanese |
Korean |
|
Note: All estimates relating to the length of time needed to learn these languages to a Speaking 3/Reading 3 (S3/R3) proficiency level assume that the student is a native speaker of English with no prior knowledge of the language to be learned. It is also assumed that the student has above average aptitude for classroom learning of foreign languages; lower aptitude language learners will typically take longer. Although languages are grouped into general "categories" of difficulty for native English speakers, within each category some languages are more difficult than others.