To want to become fluent in another language in a year?

[TonySopranosBaggyTrousers]

Is it possible?? I’m on Duolingo but it’s not enough, the lessons are very specific to certain situations … can I become fluent in a year without taking paid lessons?

Probably not unless you're going to be able to immerse yourself in the language and interact with other speakers.

You can't achieve fluency from Duolingo, you need conversational interaction.

Duolingo is a brilliant basis, but you need more, look for books, and online resources, videos, people to chat with, etc

There's AI options. Absolutely no idea how effective though.

makesyoufluent.com/all/?cmpid=64f9b76b96406f000150b821&sub1=MYF_ALL_LANGUAGES_BR_50_DSA&sub2=you%20fluent%20ai&sub3=b&sub4=156793528921&sub5=673017797658&sub6=20525321888&sub7=m&sub8=&sub9=g&sub10=&ref_id=Cj0KCQjw0ruyBhDuARIsANSZ3wrG29dQ2tND4ebMm20k3OmtLc8gMt_BpSkqPpQyFwr27fM3bafxZw8aAsv3EALw_wcB&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0ruyBhDuARIsANSZ3wrG29dQ2tND4ebMm20k3OmtLc8gMt_BpSkqPpQyFwr27fM3bafxZw8aAsv3EALw_wcB

Can you already more than one language?

I think you'd need to find some native speakers to help you along. Or visit the country for a few weeks at a time and immerse yourself.

in a year? Only by going to a country where they speak it and totally immersing yourself IMO.

There is research by the US government on how long it takes to learn different languages to different levels. They are based on classroom hours rather than self study, which will be a lot harder. UK diplomats spend a year studying full time to learn the most difficult languages to a working level eg Arabic…

It ranges from 480 hours for the easiest languages eg French to 2200 for the hardest eg Chinese or Arabic. That’s not 480 hours of Duolingo though, that’s 480 hours of intensive teaching at a pace similar to university MFL level

Good luck! It’s a great ambition.

https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/blog/fsi-language-difficulty/

Aww and there was me thinking I could just watch Peppa Pig in Italian to assist Duolingo

ok so maybe not truly fluent but I wonder how much I can learn in a year

Dann sure I can 'already more than one language'.
^^Bigly.

If it's a sister language to one that you already speak, you could make very quick progress, because you already know the structure. So say you already speak Spanish, then Italian isn't going to be as hard as something like Finnish. If you speak Polish, then you can probably crack on with Czech quite fast.

There is research that shows people can't develop fluency from watching TV. Language acquisition requires interaction.

I already have pretty good French and I picked up Spanish quite fast.

I then decided I wanted a challenge and am now learning Arabic. I expect that to take much longer than a year!

I would add, living in the country isn't even enough, you can get by on very few words and pointing, you need to be in situations that demand you communicate at a fairly complex level.

Many a language student has slacked off in the run up to their year abroad thinking it would all just happen organically once they got there. Not necessarily.

How motivated are you? When I wanted to improve my Japanese, I listened to nothing but Japanese audio books when in my car, and spent at least two hours studying the language every day. Most films I watched were in Japanese with English subtitles. During my lunch breaks, I met up with a Japanese student. She would talk to me in Japanese and I would help her with her assignments.

So true!

Having moved countries several times, it’s taken me about 18-24 months each time to become “fluent”. Was I already speaking and understanding a lot before then? Yes. Did I still have limited fluency after those 18-24 months? Also yes.

That was with living in the country / with native housemates in one case, and hearing the language every day, interacting in shops, council offices, at work if not on an English-speaking team. I also needed intensive classes (10-12 hours a week) for those languages that weren’t “sisters” of the ones I already spoke.

Would it be possible in a year? By making it your full-time occupation, possibly.

PS I speak 7 languages. So this is not a slow learning timeline, if I may say so myself.

Actually, we were told to watch Sesame Street and other preschool programmes learning a MFL ab initio at university 😂 The language library kept videos of them.

However OP, do not become discouraged from our negative posts 😅 Keep learning it and look for a conversational class or other resources which will speed up the process. In one year you can definitely learn a lot, the key to it is consistency.

If you have any budget I would highly recommend Babbel Live classes. I've been doing one a week (it's unlimited classes but I don't have time for more than one) to learn Spanish for the last ten weeks, plus a couple of hours app learning and listening to the podcasts, and I've learned loads. The lessons are far better than a language school, cheaper, and a maximum size of six students so lots of speaking practice.

Great idea. Is it dubbed? I do remember Sesamstrasse in Germany.

I actually learned loads of French watching Heartbreak High, dubbed, on my year abroad. I was too shy to speak to many French people!

Thank you for sharing this link - I've been rummaging around for a decent AI language learning program and this looks really good. I appreciate them testing you on your existing level of comprehension, instead of asking you to assess it on a scale of (usually) 1 to 3.

Edited to add: Jeeeeeeezzzzz though, the extras they pile on when you subscribe!! Will I ever reach the end of the special offers?!?!?!??!?

Depends on a language how difficult it is to learn it, and how good are you at languages! Some people just pick up languages very easily.

I'm sure Tv shows, with subtitles, can aide for sure as it helps to listen in the spoken language... or maybe it depends what kind of learner you are as well, but they've helped me.

Immerse yourself in media in your chosen language. Have it on the radio in the car, watch films and TV (with subtitles). Get yourself used to listening to it all the time. I'd love to be able to be a huge Bollywood fan, and when I my children are old enough to give me time to watch lots of movies I absolutely intend to indulge myself. As it is I've only managed to watch a few movies (and loved them), some more than once, and have the soundtrack on while I'm cleaning sometimes, and I do recognise quite a few words now. Not loads, but I've made no attempt to study the language at all and I've just got used to hearing certain words.

Just realised they're scammers. Avoid!

No one I knew was fluent even after living in a place for a year.

Quickest way to learn the language, go tothe country and get a partner.