How long to learn Spanish?

The best way is immersion, so try to talk to them as much as possible. It took me a couple years without immersion to be able to carry basic conversations and I’m still not too good at it.

It all depends on your abilities. I took 3 years of high school Spanish, and a year in college, yet I still had trouble placing phone calls to Mexico.

It would really depend on how you’re learning it and how much effort you’re willing to put in to learn it. Since your friends are willing to help you everyday then I guess you’d be able to adapt to it quicker. I think you will be able to learn Spanish in a year given that you take it seriously enough.

“Spanish” is capitalized.
It will take you at least a year of full immersion.

Practice and teach is not really the same as immersion. I think it will take you over a year if you are starting from scratch, starting with no Spanish knowledge. If you were immersed at about 6 months you would probably be able to handle a lot of conversation, but still making a lot of mistakes and coming across instances where you are short on vocabulary. Everyone is different though. I had taken Spanish in school and it took me about 3 months to become much better at carrying on a conversation when I was in an environment of speaking Spanish daily for a few hours. I wasn’t translating anymore, but actually thinking in Spanish.

After 50 years of working on my French, I still will never be mistaken for a native speaker and still could not have a discussion of abstract subjects comfortably. However, I do pretty well with most casual conversations if 1) people are not speaking at the speed of light and 2) they use a Parisian accent rather than the regional ones, such as spoken on the docks in Marseilles.

Even listening to folks from Montreal, for example, I find challenging.

I did have three months of full immersion after five years of schooling. That made all the difference.

Spanish, again spoken slowly and without too much regional accent, is easier. After two years of college Spanish, I can read newspapers and magazines, and understand some when I watch a Spanish movie. I have a Facebook friend who often writes in Spanish: I make a point of understanding his quips and looking up the few words I need to when I need to.

@letmeknow17: That said, just start on page one and go at your own pace. It will take however long it takes and will be a lot of fun. Today you can tell your friends your name, tomorrow, the weather report, the next day listing what you had for lunch. Keep a little notebook and write down a few things after each chat; vocabulary, idiom, whatever strikes your fancy. Review just before you fall asleep.

I used to listen to French nursery rhymes when I was still learning. That was also fun. And I am told that there are Spanish daytime soap operas accessible in some areas. You will need to know mi alma, mi corazon and el dolor.

Spanish is a fairly simple language. You can get by quite comfortably with a 10.000 word vocabulary, compared to the 14.000 to 20.000 needed to get by in English.

If you really go for it, and have a talent for languages, you can get it done in 3 months, but it can take up to 5 years, depending on how much you go for it.

I have known people move here to Spain in their teens, and be fluent in Spanish after just 6 months. However, that is by going to school in Spain, having Spanish friends, and living here full time.

There are also plenty of old British people who live out here, that have been here for over 30 years, and still can’t speak more than a few loose words.

There is no set time. It is when your brain takes it all in, simple as that.

How long is a piece of string?

I’ve been speaking English for 60 years, and I’m still working on it. I took Spanish for four years in high school and became “almost conversational” (in slow conversations about simple topics) and could read (badly) good prose.

You’ll know that you’re getting there when you can start to dream in Spanish.

Its totally depends on you & your environment where you spend your most of the time. If you are passionate towards to learn Spanish so its depends on you how long you will take a time to learn it.