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The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), located in the US state of Virginia, is the main educational institution for US diplomats.
FSI has created a list to show the approximate time you need to learn a specific language as an English speaker. After this particular study time you will reach “Speaking 3: General Professional Proficiency in Speaking (S3)” and “Reading 3: General Professional Proficiency in Reading (R3)”
FSI has compiled a list of 61 languages of the peoples of the world grouped by the approximate time required for a native speaker of English to study it.
According to the study, category I includes 10 languages closely related to English, which require 23-24 weeks or 570-600 hours to learn.
The only language of category II is German, which is classified as similar to English, the study of which requires 30 weeks or 750 hours.
Category III contains 3 languages with linguistic and/or cultural differences from English, which require 36 weeks or 900 hours to learn.
Category IV includes 42 languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English. This group includes the Armenian language, the languages spoken by residents of some other post-Soviet countries, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan, as well as Hindi, Urdu, Albanian, Croatian, Greek, Latvian, Lithuanian, Turkish. , Zulu, Thai, Polish, Mongolian. English-speaking students will need 44 weeks or 1100 hours to master one of these languages.
Finally, category V has gathered five languages that are extremely difficult for native speakers of English. Among them are two Chinese dialects, as well as Arabic, Japanese, and Korean. Those who wish to learn one of them will need 88 weeks or 2,200 hours.
* Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category.
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