Discussion How much time does it take to learn a language

O_O)...

 

Meh, learn the basic stuff until you can read a bit. From there, start reading a lot, help yourself with dictionaries, then start reading out loud. Once you've got that down, you have to watch movies, tv shows, anime or whatever in the language you're trying to learn, preferably subbed in said language, so you can get a good grasp on the way they pronounce some words. After that, talk to natives as much as you can, and there you go.
All in all, you could do it in about 8 months.
If you want to become a translator, it's a different story.

 

*feels bad for Chinese translators*
QwQ)/

 

I don't know about Chinese, but that's how you should go about learning Japanese, at least.

 

Apperantly in China, they have various scales of literacy, with - let's say - six being the supposed best you can get after high school, with the later stages requiring a college entry.

Just imagine the average Joe trying to translate stuff at that level.

q.q)o
We must pay our respects.

 

Depends what you wanna do with the language i guess. It will DEFINITLY depend on the person, i myself have quite some problems with languages (even struggling with English), i'm just way better with scientific stuff, others are really quick in picking up new languages.
Back to my first statement: If you primarily wanna READ Chinese stuff, then it will take a lot less time as it will take to learn the pronunciation and/or writing as well. If you're memorizing some basic symbols you can build a lot out of them and with 500-1000 of words you should be fine to read everything and understanding the content. I heard that this is quite "easy" to accomplish. (That’s my goal after i'm done with my master thesis so that i can read Chinese novels ^^). If you wanna speak and write Chinese as well you will need a lot more time than this.

 

That's right. Learning a language is a matter of persistence and practising the language everyday. It's actually much easier now to learn a new language because of the convenience of resources around like Youtube and language phone apps that can helps you with your pronunciation. The same goes with being a translator. It'll get much easier as you plough through it.

 

Yeah, learning a language is highly variable. It's dependent on a lot of different factors: how dedicated you are, what kind of work you put into learning, your language background, your aptitude, and what is your end goal. Personally, it took me only a few months to start from basic books to being able to read novels at a rudimentary level. However, that rudimentary level was very rudimentary, and I'm still not satisfied at my reading level even though that was years ago, and I had a lot of advantages that you probably aren't privy to. In any case, it's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication.