Thread: How long...

Suppose I was to spend about 5 hours a week on studying Russian (I have a lot of free time), how long would I, assuming I'm just an average person, be expected to spend on learning to become proficient enough to carry a conversation?

Find the website of a university providing Russian courses, which is close to your area. Check how many hours this Russian course includes. Multiply this value by 3 or 5 because the students should also do a lot of homework and you'll get the desired total number of hours to become proficient enough to carry a conversation. If you'll spend 5 hours a week then divide the total number of hours by 5 and you'll get the number of weeks. This, of course, would work only if you will struggle with Russian as hard as the students of that university do.

It appears to me that I should either spend more of my free time studying or be very patient, then. Thanks for the idea -- it makes sense. I'll likely up my studying to 10 hours a week because I really do have a lot of free time and I want to learn a language as fast as possible.

Thanks again for the insight!

it's very time consuming...IMO, at that rate you're looking at a couple of years (3-4) before you can carry on some semblance of a conversation. You have to be in it for the long haul if you want to get anywhere with the language.