Are we there yet?

How long 'till we're fluent? My answer, and a few thoughts on why realistic expectations can take a weight off our shoulders and add a kick of motivation. TLDL estimates for a native English speaker to reach fluency, studying one hour per day: - About 2 ½ years for Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian (or Spanish) - About 3 years for French (or Spanish) - About 4 years for German, Indonesian, Malay, Swahili, or Haitian Creole - About 5 years for most other language varieties, including Baltic, Slavic, Turkic, Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, etc. - About 10 years for Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Arabic Link to a 1999 paper with conclusions from FSI programs: http://sealang.net/archives/sla/gurt_1999_07.pdf