There is a reason why so many people don’t speak more than one language. It’s not because they don’t want to.
It is because learning a language is so unbelievably difficult. That is why so many people give up trying.
But I believe anyone can learn a language if they have the will to. I became fluent in Spanish working a 50 hour a week job with a busy social life (I know that might sound like peanuts to your schedule).
Ok, let’s get to the question at hand.
How long does it take for an English speaker to be fluent in Spanish?
This, of course, is extremely difficult to calculate as everyone learns at a different pace and some use more effective methods than others.
But let me hit you with a concrete number that can probably be used as an average for everyday Joe's like me.
How Many Hours Does it Take to Be Fluent in Spanish?
The US Department of State says that it takes an English learner 575–600 class hours.
That’s quite a long time! In case you are doing the math at home that means you would need to work for a little over 10 hours a week for an entire year to achieve Spanish Fluency!
Going off my own personal experience, I reckon it took about that time, 600 hours.
During my year of self-study, I never tracked my hours, but if I was to estimate, I put in around 7-15 hours a week and about 600 hours total.
Maybe less though and to be honest, many of those hours didn't feel like "work."
And to think, Spanish is classified in the “easy” category for English speakers. Good thing you aren’t learning Arabic!
How I studied was fundamental.
I never went with the boring class hours’ approach and because of that I believe I was much better off than those that go the traditional lecture and textbook route.
I know how lazy I can be and how quickly my mind can shift to other things so likewise I am positive that if I didn’t enjoy the process and had fun learning Spanish, I never would have reached advanced conversational fluency.
Before we get into the best ways to study Spanish let’s take a look at what it means to be fluent.
What Does It Mean to Be Fluent in Spanish?
Dictionary.com defines fluency as the ability to speak or write quickly in a given language. Thus, fluency doesn’t have anything to do with your pronunciation or accent.
It primarily has to do with your ability to communicate yourself comfortably in a given language.
Thankfully, I at least pass this test. I can communicate myself with just about any Spanish speaker I come across and likewise understand what they are saying in response.
But that’s not to say my speaking doesn’t come with a typical gringo accent. My pronunciation is pretty suspect at times mainly due to the fact that I never really focused on it.
Don’t believe me check out our weekly Spanish Podcast and you will hear me embarrass myself every Wednesday.
But that’s okay. Even if I still can’t roll my R’s that doesn’t mean I am not a fluent Spanish speaker!
Perfection is an unreachable goal that nobody attains.
Eventually there is only one person standing in a Spelling Bee. I probably only use 90-95% of the English language (perhaps less) and I am far from perfect in it.
Even as a Native English speaker, I make mistakes here and there and am far from perfect.
So why do we have this feeling that we need to be perfect in another language?
Why not just get to that 85% range, enjoy the fruits of our labor, and slowly improve over time?
I would say that is worth it and aside from a few embarrassing mistakes here and there, worth it.
Ok so now that we defined what it means to be fluent, I am going to give you a quick roadmap on how to get there.
Below is a tried and true approach that I have used to get to Spanish fluency in about a years’ time.
Follow these study habits and I can guarantee you will make solid progress over time and get to that Spanish fluency that you are so eagerly seeking.
How to Study Spanish (Efficiently)
Early on in my Spanish journey I followed a popular language blogger and polyglot, Benny Lewis.
He has a very straightforward approach to language learning and certainly one I resonated with.
Benny and I at a Language Meetup
The dude speaks 11 languages (several of them very well) so I would be a fool not to listen to him.
The thesis of his teaching is to Speak From Day 1. On the surface that seems preposterous!
How can anyone speak words that they don’t know?
Well, first off, if you are learning Spanish, which hopefully you are if you are reading this blog, then chances are you are starting with an already basic understanding of the language.
Everyone knows “Hola,” “Como te llamas” and many other phrases that you probably picked up in High School Spanish class.
The point is anyone who wants to learn Spanish in a short amount of time should begin to start using it. This is the basis for the five methods that I lay out below.
What follows is not a recommendation to enroll in the next Spanish class at your local community college or to start watching a bunch of movies in Spanish! (as fun as that may be)
As a whole, I have found class hours to be a total waste of time.
Case in point, how much do you actually remember from your high school or college classes?
Classes are regularly taught in large gatherings where you listen to a teacher talk on a particular topic.
They are such a passive experience.
You are just sitting in a seat and listening as opposed to engaging with what you are learning.
If you are lucky, maybe you speak 1% of the time in class.
My methods below point to actually using the Spanish language and getting your feet wet with the most efficient methods I know.
5 Best Ways to Learn Spanish
Before I lay out the top ways to learn Spanish, I recommend you checking out this article which goes much more into depth with how you can learn the Spanish language in less time.
It focuses on 80/20 efficiency and truly going after the most essential methods to level up your language learning.
Studying smarter beats studying harder any day in my book (although you need both).
1) Find Spanish Friends
You certainly won’t be speaking much Spanish if all you ever do is hang around English speakers. It is easier than ever to meet new friends from overseas with a click of a mouse.
Conversationexchange.com is an outstanding free resource to meet native Spanish speakers.
Most of the time the people on the site want to learn English so you can easily arrange to speak half the time in English and half the time in Spanish.
I have met some incredible people in many different countries from all over the world with this approach. I was able see and hear from people in other cultures and begin to understand what they are going through and what they struggle with.
Hey, I even met my wife, Andrea, with this method!
2) Learn With an Online Tutor
You might be thinking, “This sounds a lot like taking Spanish classes.”
There is a huge difference here. While a class is focused on you and 20 or so odd students (sometimes more, sometimes less), an online tutoring session is 100% focused on you!
For around $10/hour you can get fantastic personalized lessons focused on your Spanish goals.
You will be able to speak Spanish with a native correcting you in real time and encouraging you along the way. This is so incredibly vital to attaining fluency.
I found an excellent Spanish tutor from Mexico to speak with 2-3 times a week (and correct my mistakes). It was the best money I spent all week.
My improvement from day 1 to day 180 was tremendous, mainly because of tutors like him.
We recommend LanguaTalk for its simplicity in booking an excellent Spanish tutor at affordable rates.
3) Use a Flashcard App With Spaced Repetition Software
Let’s not forget if you are going to speak Spanish you must know some Spanish words. It’s for that reason that I use my trusty Anki app on my smartphone and have learned many new vocab words.
You can easily download someone else’s public flashcards and start studying them right away. I found a couple sets of free flashcards and learned a lot of new words in my spare time.
Here’s a quick recommendation. Try and use flashcards that have pictures on them or full sentences with the target vocabulary words in the sentences.
It is much better to learn full sentences as opposed to just single word definitions.
We tend to remember things better with imagery and stories. So make sure to implement them into your daily flashcard routine.
Finally, if you can’t find the flashcards you are looking for, create them. Anki has an easy to use tool to do that within the app.
4) Listen to Spanish Podcasts
Another great way to start hearing the language spoken is with Spanish language Podcasts. I love Podcasts and listen to them all the time as they can be incredibly educational.
You can listen to them whenever you have free time like when you are folding clothes or taking a walk around the block.
They are perfect to listen to when your mind doesn’t have to be overly engaged, like when you are writing a research paper.
Coffee Break Spanish is always my number one recommendation as Radio Lingua does a great job teaching the Spanish language. They break down all the essential elements and even have superb stories in Spanish for those higher intermediate language learners.
If you are looking for a more advanced conversational Podcast in the Spain dialect I recommend Notes in Spanish.
We recommend the Spanishland School Podcast (taught by my wife Andrea, a magnificent Colombian teacher)and the Españolistos Podcast, for those learning the Latin American dialect.
Españolistos is fun and conversational with a wide variety of interesting topics and interviews. It's also spoken completely in Spanish, so please do keep that in mind if you are a complete beginner.
5) Read in Spanish
Of the 5 methods outlined here, this method is the one that I used the least. Reading can be very difficult in another language.
I didn’t enjoy reading all that much in Spanish and for that matter didn’t do it very often.
But I do highly recommend it and I wish I would have done more of it early on. Nowadays, I try to read a small passage each day in Spanish.
There are many great short stories and dialogues out there that you can use to follow along and hear the language written out.
Once you get to a more advanced level, try reading your favorite book in Spanish. I did this with one of my favorites, Love Does, and had a greater appreciation for it after reading it in the Spanish language.
Since you already understand most of the book it will make more sense when you are reading it in Spanish and don’t understand every word that is on the page.
How Long Will It Take You to Be Fluent in Spanish?
If you follow the 5 steps above with some sort of consistency I have no doubt you will speak fluent Spanish in less than a years time.
That's assuming you can put in an hour or so a day semi-consistently.
Consistency is key. If you can’t be consistent and don’t have the motivation to stick it out, I would recommend quitting right now.
It’s not worth it to get only halfway there in my opinion. Although that does have value.
The best way to stay consistent is to truly enjoy the process and have a strong why statement as your reason for learning the language.
Finally, if you could do only one thing from the above list, my recommendation would be to get an online tutor and start speaking with a native teacher right away. This is so, so crucial to improving your speaking and listening.
Next time you think about taking class hours to learn Spanish, think twice.
What ways have you used to learn Spanish and how long did it take you to get to fluency?
I started learning Spanish several years ago and now am 76. Not to discourage “old” learners, but older adults need much more time to learn than children, teens and young adults. It is a fact of life. You need to be patient with yourself and not give up. I am pretty good at Spanish now but it has taken me a good 7 years of study, conversation etc. My listening skills are still my weakest of the basic skills. I have spoken to Spanish speakers from 17 Spanish speaking countries and help tutor English to native Spanish speakers in my community. The study of the language, the culture and the history is such a wonderful trip. You adult leaners can enjoy it and succeed, but you have to be patient!
Hi Patrick, thanks for posting in. Super glad you are sticking with it and kept learning. It takes a lot of work, but I definitely think adults can be just as adept to learning as kids if they set their minds to it.
Thank you very much for your post. I am also an older student and was feeling frustrated today. I really enjoy studying Spanish, but it’s definitely harder to learn now that I am older. You have inspired me! Thanks.
For sure. You can learn at any age so please keep at it. So many health benefits too! 🙂
Patrick, I’m an older guy too, and I can relate.
I’m just wrapping up the last Spanish class that community college offers and that works out to 720 hours to reach intermediate fluency. My experience is similar to yours, and it is taking me longer. But I also struggled to learn German in high school, although in every other subject, I was a straight-A student, so maybe I just don’t have an aptitude for languages. I still get English, my native language, grammar wrong often.
I ran into a recent problem though – hearing loss. It became very apparent to me in my last Spanish course. I couldn’t recognize sounds. I couldn’t hear “n” or “a” and mixed up “d,” “t,” and “p,” etc. I’m getting a hearing aid to assist with this.
I don’t think it’s just me and my hearing, though. I think some Spanish language recordings are garbled, and the speaker is dropping the “n” or “a,” etc.
Sometimes I have to turn on closed captioning in English language programs because I can’t understand the actors. I notice that newscasters speak very articulately. I rarely have trouble understanding them. I think that’s because newscasters are trained to speak very articulately.
I heard a statistic that it takes seven years to become fluent in another language. It sounds like you’re on track Patrick.
Hola Jim, gracias por compartir esto con nosotros, es increíble, espero que llegues a ese nivel que buscas, un abrazo.
Hi Nate,
Thank you for sharing these wonderful tips! What did your weekly schedule look like as you incorporated these activities into your day-to-day life? I too am working 50+ hr weeks, and I want to know what ratio of each activity you would recommend as you build up to 600 hrs of learning.
Thank you,
Marcos
Hola Marcos, thanks so much for checking out the article and leaving a comment. Sounds like you are really limited on time. If I were you I would try and listen to Spanish Podcasts/Audiobooks on your commutes and sign up for 3 hours of Spanish tutoring each week. If you have an hour or two left I would try and get a Spanish textbook to work through or find someone to help you with your writing.
Hi, thank you for posting such an informative article. I’ve wanted to learn Spanish for a long time and now feel I have the time to put into it.
Is it worth focussing on one area ie learning to speak the language first then learning to read and write? Or learn all in parallel to one another?
Many Thanks
Kelly-Jo
Thanks so much for the kind words Kelly-Jo! If you have the time, I would recommend learning through all the different methods to really engage your senses and each method will build on top of the other. However, your main focus should always be speaking and hearing as those aspects will move the needle much more quickly than the others. So listen to Spanish Podcasts and speak with a Spanish tutor (in Spanish) 2-3 times a week first. Most importantly, don’t quit it’s worth it! 🙂
Thank you so much for posting this EXTREMELY helpful and insightful article. I have been at square one for way too long (Donde está baño?) and am now ready to take it to the next level…..become fluent. When I practice with native Spanish speakers, they all say that I speak very well. My problem is what you said…..consistency. Thank you again and I will begin using some of your tips today. My goal is to become fluent by the end of the year. If I remember, I will let you know. Btw, my son and I took lessons together more than 5 years ago. He is now fluent and takes online lessons with Native speakers I believe 2 to 3 times a week. He is truly committed! I’m definitely on my way…..I must learn!
Val super glad you found the article helpful. Consistency is king so make sure to set a routine in place each week. 🙂
Would love to know if you got anywhere, don’t know if this notifies you or not.
I have tried many times to learn a language from the time I was 20 years old. I am a very slow learner in languages. So I am working on my 4th earnest attempt at learning a language at age 59. I found that spaced repetition has by far been the best tool for me. It has for me, worked much better than any of the other methods. It certainly is satisfying to finally get results from all of the hours and hard work. I think any spaced repetition audio course will work. But I use Pimsleur. Este curso por audio es muy bueno.
Spaced repetition is great and I had a lot of success in the past with Pimsleur. As long as you are listening to the language and speaking it you will make progress. 🙂
Hi, my name is Shannon. My sister and I really want to become relatively fluent in Spanish. Right now we made a plan that every time we see each other, we are gonna speak in Spanish only. Also, I am gonna do Rosetta Stone online and see if that helps. Do you think those two things will help me achieve my goal?
Thank you,
Shannon
Hi Shannon, thanks so much for checking out the article. Speaking in Spanish is great to start with – don’t make any exceptions to that rule haha. Not a huge fan of Rosetta Stone to be honest, but the important thing is you are making progress and moving forward. It’s still learning, but I think you would be more effective getting a tutor from Italki and speaking with one a couple of times a week. Here’s an affiliate link you can use to get $10 when you spend $10.
You will get their quite a bit faster than Rosetta Stone.
You and your sister can definitely do it in a short amount of time (6 months). It just takes consistency and persistence!
Thank you so much, I will talk to my dad about the tutor. So, one question, with the tutor what do the classes look like usually?
Thank you so much
Shannon Roman
Each tutor teaches a different way. However, I usually would find one that was conversational and corrected my mistakes in Spanish. That’s what I preferred, but you can tell them what you want to focus on. 🙂
Thank you for the great article ☺ . Though, all are great advices and I am no expert, reading is what I would recommend as a number 1 advice. Since, that is what worked for me when I began learning English more than a decade ago; eventhough speaking is also a great way to learn a language. Few monthes ago I started learning my third language ‘Spanish’.
Hi Leul, to each his own as they say. I am glad reading has worked out for you. I just personally have never used it really to learn Spanish, but it is definitely a great method! Keep going with that third language. 🙂
I spent over 25 years reading books in Spanish. I can now read almost any level of Spanish novel or textbook. However, I cannot speak it nor can I understand it spoken. I am attempting to learn how to move from reading and writing to processing the language verbally. Very difficult as I learned it visually. All my coworkers speak spanish so I practice all day long. My verbal skills are slowly linking with my visual vocabulary. The hardest part is processing the verb tenses. When reading the tense conjugation is already done for you. When speaking I have to do it. It is quite a leap. Any suggestions for speeding up the process…
Paul, that is understandable and a problem many of our students have. It’s great to study it but if you don’t speak it you won’t learn it in my opinion. I think you need to find a tutor you like on Italki.com and get started speaking a couple times a week. All the best!
Awesome Article! Thank you, starting my Spanish journey for 2020!!!
Good to hear, Amanda! I can promise you won’t regret it.
I have decided to learn Spanish as an adult. I am going to start by using a Spanish Studio. As a beginner I will start in a classroom and I will most likely have a tutor. The studio seems cool because they have book clubs, social gatherings, and lectures concerning the Spanish culture and language. All of the teachers are native Spanish speakers. I really looking forward to doing this.
Good to hear, Michael! Now just stay consistent with it.
Gracias por todos los consejos. I have been using italki, Anki, Coffee Break Spanish and some audio listen/repeat Spanish from Learning Spanish like crazy as well as a good grammar book and I def see it working. About to start Notes in Spanish after finishing season 2 of coffeebreak.
Awesome, good to hear, Keith! All great methods!
Enjoyed your article. Plenty of good information, but I don’t agree with everything you said, which merely proves that everyone learns differently. The one thing you ripped apart that I disagreed with was about formal classes. I started taking Spanish classes in 8th grade. By the time I graduated from high school, I’d taken 5 years, and I was pretty close to fluent. If you include required Language Lab time and homework, I probably had 4500 hours all-in. Your characterization of classroom as passive learning is way off. I had 2 different teachers in high school, and at least 5 more in college, and sitting back and just listening was not something you could do in ANY of those classes. My classes were all extremely interactives. So, after 30 years of barely using my Spanish and losing most of my ability, I am back studying, and just discovered coffee break Spanish – and I’ve tested at least 10 different podcasts and YouTube channels – Coffee Break Spanish is the best I’ve tried. I also agree strongly that your learning will be much more effective if you use a variety of resources.
Hi Rick, thanks for taking the time to read the article and write in. I didn’t mean to characterize formal classes as useless. I think it’s a great way to learn for a lot of people. Just for me I had the opposite experience and growing up with 4 years of high school Spanish proved rather fruitless. But it was partly due to lack of interest… for me my learning took off once I started using some of those other methods outlined. I took formal classes in my later years and didn’t get a ton out of those. Coffee Break Spanish is fantastic, glad you are enjoying it!
I’ve been interested in learning languages for months (specifically, Spanish, Korean, and Hawaiian.) and as a southern Texan I’ve been taking Spanish classes in school. Over this summer, I’ve forgotten all of my learning! With 3 hours a day until then (though I probably won’t keep that up everyday, as I’m just like you with distractions.) and spending those hours with genuine learning it’d be 186 hours, which is around 1/3 of the recommended hours spent! (1/3.22580645161 to be exact, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite well, now does it?) Considering this will be my 2nd year in the class and there are 6 different years of it available.. I might genuinely be able to pull off the exam to skip that year of useless Spanish class!! We’re required 2 years of language study here and with that Spanish class out of the way I’ll have a free class spot I could use for some fun electives!
You can do it, Trent!
What way would be best to learn grammar and writing in Spanish?
Hola Gabe, I am a bit biased, but we have a Spanish membership just for that thing: http://www.spanishlandschool.com/member
Or just get a good tutor that focuses on grammar and writing. 🙂
Hi. Re: learning Spanish. I think being older, you possess more patience. By older, I mean, older than the majority of people. When learning another language as an “older” person, perhaps you might have the advantage of several things. There is no need or desire to immediately “be the best”. You are wise enough to know that we are being forced into pointless competition for the ultimate purpose of consumerism…somebody trying to sell you something, or coerce you into certain behaviour.
Keeping things simple is easier as an older adult. You have been around long enough to know how to keep it simple. You know how to simply ignore the distractions and work away at a task. “Time” is a consumerist construct, which is not applicable in learning another language. Would you not be more satisfied with taking your time and learning the basics of a language well, rather than knowing a lot but with only surface familiarity?
Simple basic phrases will slowly evolve into sentences…entonces, usted será capaz de comunicarse casualmente con sus amigos de habla hispana, y diviértete haciéndolo.
Salud !!
Great points and thanks for sharing your experience. 🙂