Active language usage
Language Learning Is Hard and Will Always Be Hard
Deep down, we already know it. That's why we're so surprised when someone we've known for years suddenly starts speaking a foreign language. It almost never happens.
Language learning requires hundreds of hours of practice and thousands of words to learn.
Most teachers and language-learning communities agree that the road to B2 takes between 800 to 1500 hours of study and practice. Institutional data points the same way: the US Defense Language Institute needs 36 to 64 weeks of full-time study to bring its students to limited working proficiency on the ILR scale. Much of that time goes into vocabulary, because understanding native speakers and reading books without help requires knowing thousands of word families.
- 800–1,500
- hours of study and practice
- 6,000–9,000
- word families to understand speech and written text
Hundreds of hours of practice and thousands of words are no joke. It takes years – that's why so many people give up, and why so few are fluent in three or more languages.
Successful language learners are active language users.
Those who understand the enormous scope of language learning don't rely on apps and courses – they weave the foreign language into their lives.
- They read books
- They consume news
- They watch YouTube
- They listen to podcasts
- They think in the foreign language
- They jump on every opportunity to use it
They start as soon as they reach a stable A2 level. It's hard, but they persevere and eventually become fluent.
Becoming fluent in a foreign language improves your life.
Pursuing fluency in a foreign language tangibly improves people's lives. They become more articulate. They find better jobs, better friends, and better partners. They move to better countries.