'How long will it take me to become proficient in ...?'

Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers

People often ask: "How long will it take me to become proficient in ...?" This question is almost impossible to answer because a lot depends on the person's language learning ability, motivation, learning environment, intensity of instruction, and prior experience in learning foreign languages.

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for languages based on the length of time it takes to achieve Professional Speaking (S3) and Reading Proficiency (R-3) in them. This is roughly equivalent to ACTFL Superior .

Keep in mind that students at FSI are almost 40 years old, are native speakers of English. and have a good aptitude for formal language study, plus knowledge of several other foreign languages. They study in small classes of no more than 6. Their schedule calls for 25 hours of class per week with 3-4 hours per day of directed self-study.

Categories Number of full-time weeks to achieve Professional Speaking and Reading ability

Category I
Languages closely related to English
23-24 weeks
(575-600 class hours)

Afrikaans
Danish
Dutch
French
Italian
Norwegian
Portuguese
Romanian
Spanish
Swedish


Category II
Languages with significant linguistic
and/or cultural differences from English
44 weeks
(1100 class hours)

Albanian
Amharic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Burmese
Croatian
Czech
*Estonian
*Finnish
*Georgian
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
*Hungarian
Icelandic
Khmer
Lao
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
*Mongolian
Nepali
Pashto
Persian (Dari, Farsi, Tajik)
Polish
Russian
Serbian
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Tagalog
*Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
*Vietnamese
Xhosa
Zulu


Category III
Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers 88 weeks
(second year 0f study in-country)
(2200 class hours)

Arabic
Cantonese
Mandarin Chinese
*Japanese
Korean


Other languages
German
30 weeks
(750 class hours)
Indonesian, Malaysian, Swahili
36 weeks
(900 class hours)

* Languages preceded by asterisks are typically somewhat more difficult for native English speakers to learn to speak and read than other languages in the same category.

You can now compare these figures to the average number of class hours per year in a college language course. A typical college year is 9 months or 36 weeks. A typical language course is 3-5 hours a week, or 108-180 hours per year plus preparation outside of class. It's no wonder that students who start a foreign language from scratch in college, rarely achieve high levels of proficiency. Unless they have done significant language work in high school, they will need to supplement their program with intensive summer schools and study abroad in order to achieve a high level of speaking proficiency.

-http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectations.html

How many Americans can speak a second language fluently?

Only 9% of Americans can speak their native language plus another language fluently, as opposed to 53% of Europeans.

Any comments on this?

Chinese Language

"When sophomore Scott Wilson thinks of his future as an international business lawyer, he sees it stamped "Made in China."

After all, about 1.3 billion people speak Chinese and the country's economy has been one of the fastest growing in the world in the last six years."


"He joins an estimated 30,000 other American teens studying Chinese - up six-fold from the estimated 5,000 who studied the language in 2000, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages."


"Also, she said, the Chinese language "enhances learning of math and science."

Research supports the idea that studying Chinese and Japanese develops different parts of the brain, Sandoval said.

"Students must get their hands around something totally foreign," Sandoval said, referring to the Chinese and Japanese characters that are so different from the English alphabet.

"For some reason," she said, "having to utilize a new, different language forces you to use different parts of your brain."

- http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/sep/28/chinese-language-classes-popular-aps/


I like.

VLOG (Espanol)

Por fin.. videos para mi gente dominicano!!

Gente vieja bailando en el parque. Que chevere, eh!?

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Jaja gozando con amigos.

EF Building

Wandering around the EF building:

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Oral Class:

ASL Update 2/ VLOG - "Frogger"

Quick update about first day of classes. I'd type it all out, but I'd rather not haha.. I have a lot to study.

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"Frogger"

Nothing gets those neurons firing in the morning better than a quick game of "Shanghai-Frogger".

Languages

More support in the news that Mandarin-Chinese is the language to learn, check it out:


"Both, Bhidey and Beena Menon who heads SIFL, told TOI that students knowing Mandarin were getting a preference in the job market. "Business with China is booming and many management students, businessmen and corporate representatives are now learning Chinese," Menon said."

"Almost every institute teaching Chinese has its own success stories in the form of students and businessmen having benefited enormously after having learnt the language."
- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2021333.cms

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"Zamora already speaks German and English, but she struggles to learn written Chinese characters and mimic tones unknown in Spanish. She persists for a simple reason: China is voraciously scouring Latin America for everything from oil to lumber, and there is money to be made. That prospect has not only Zamora but business people in much of Latin America flocking to learn the Chinese language, increasingly heard in boardrooms and on executive junkets."

"It's fundamental to communicate in their language when you go there or they come here," said Zamora, 40, a sales executive for the German drugmaker Bayer, which is growing dramatically in China. "If you don't know their language, you're lost."


"The world is divided into east and west, and the culture is completely different," said Miguel Angel Poveda, president of the Colombo-China Chamber of Commerce in Bogota. "The only way to get around it is to understand the culture and learn to do business with them, but in their language."

"Many of those taking up the challenge are young, like Leidy Catalina Ortega, 17, who recently dropped an English-language class in favor of Mandarin. Her parents want to import clothing from China to sell in Bogota. If she learns the language, she will help manage the business."
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14945958/

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"In recent years, schools nationwide have increased foreign-language offerings, partly in response to a call from government and business leaders who are looking for more bilingual workers.

D.C. school officials signed an agreement this week with education officials in China to hire several teachers to instruct students in Chinese language and culture. And in Columbia, Md., a second high school is seeking to offer students a course in Chinese next year."
N.Va. school system gets language grant (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

That's why I'm here, that's why I learn languages. Do I want to go to college and get a degree? Yes. Do I have aspirations for a future career? You'd better believe it, I've got a smorgasbord of ideas. Do I know which one of my ideas is a sure thing? No. But right now I'm planning, I'm ...(as George W. Bush would put it) "strategerizing". And as you can tell from the articles, being able to represent yourself as a multifaceted individual, is a key quality in this ever flattening world. Globalization.

Piedra or Pillow?

"I slept like a rock" - a phrase widely used in America. "I slept on a rock" - a phrase I'm beginning to believe may be just as popular here in China. For the past few nights I've been having dreams of Chevy trucks and Bob Seger staring down at me singing "Liiike a rock, Oooh like a rock!". Yes, my pillow is a sack of pebbles. It's filled with beads, and if you're thinking "oh nice, it conforms to the shape of your head", you'd be mistaken. The pebble-sack is so jam-packed with beads that there's no space for the material to disperse and contort to any shape.

I think I remember seeing something about my cobblestone pouch on like a 6th grade test: "The matter of your Chinese pillow exists in one of four different states or phases: (A)solid, (B)liquid, (C)gas or (D)plasma". I now know beyond a doubt that the correct answer is 'A'.

In an attempt to rectify my sleeping situation, I conferred with a new friend about my predicament, this is the advice I got in return:


Friend: "Hard pillow good for health."
Me: "Thanks."

Hmm, 'good for my health' - as in if there is a nuclear attack I can hide under my pillow and survive? Good for my health in that if a night prowler wakes me in my sleep and challenges me to a pillow fight I'd win? A pillow that offers me a sense of safety? I'm not looking for a security blanket. I'm looking for the kind of "healthy" that will allow me to wake up 2 months from now and still feel my legs. I want to wake up without bruises on my neck.


There is one positive thing in all of this, I haven't wasted any time "falling asleep" at night. It seems that from the moment my head touches the pillow.. I'm out stone cold.

If you have yet to ascertain from this post, FYI yes I am going shopping for a new pillow ASAP.

- Rocking and Rolling... stiffly out of bed in Shanghai.

Video Update (in ASL)

Meeting my classmates

Yesterday was a blast! There are about 25 new students from around the world enrolled in the same year-long course. The majority of us can speak more than 1 or 2 languages, and everyone speaks a little english. The age group is varied, but the majority range between 19 - 23 years old. There are a handful of students who have studied Mandarin Chinese in the past and have some backround knowledge of the language, they'll be in a higher level starting right off the bat. Most of us have no history, no language *grin* just lots of work waiting for us.

First post from the other side of the world.

I'm finally in Shanghai! I really thought I'd never arrive, sitting on that plane for what felt like 2 days. After arriving from the Dulles airport to the one in Detroit, I hopped on a huge 747 and took off to Tokyo. Guess what happened? About 4 hours into the trip our plane was leaking hydraulic fluids and we had to turn around and go back to Detriot (they claimed that was the only place they could do the repairs at). Arrived in Detriot at around 12 -1 AM. So basically I flew a total of 8 hours for nothing more than a complimentary stay at a Best Western hotel.


Anyways - today I settled in my room, chatted with the family - who happen to be awesome, and visited the school. So it's official, I am the only student from the U S of A *GRIN* - that's just fine with me. I haven't actually met any of the other students, that happens tomorrow at 1 in the afternoon.


My first impression of Shanghai:

"WOW, America is sooo behind!" - The technology here is everywhere from the bus ride I took with 4 flat screen tv's spread out, the cell phone's I've seen being used, the massiveness of everything from the bridges to the buildings. I love it. There's quite a bit of construction going on around here, right outside of my window they're building what looks like to be a huge apartment complex, the workers don't sleep (as in there is always someone pounding something - because I HEAR IT ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT!!)

Chipotle before China

Friends offering me advice and good luck before my year long adventure.

Practice Post

Hello all, this is a blog I've created for the purpose of making sure all my friends and family are kept informed of my adventures in China. I hope to be able to post news, pictures, and videos about my experiences here in China.