'How long does it take to learn Spanish?'
'How long does it take to learn Spanish?
7 Answers
There are so many questions on ‘How Long Does It Take To Learn Spanish” that I thought I would post this:-
The U.S. Govt. has something called the FIS Absolute Language Proficiency Ratings which rates the degree of mastery of the language thus:-
Elementary proficiency. The person is able to satisfy routine travel needs and minimum courtesy requirements.
Limited working proficiency. The person is able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements.
Minimum professional proficiency. The person can speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics.
Full professional proficiency. The person uses the language fluently and accurately on all levels normally pertinent to professional needs.
Native or bilingual proficiency. The person has speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native speaker.
A person's level of proficiency is determined after a 10 to 20 minute conversation.
Now assuming that you are an English speaker and are learning Spanish they note the following hours of study being needed to reach the following levels.
Level 1/1+ - 240 hours
Level +1/2 - 480 hours
Level 2/+2 - 720 hours
They also offer free spanish lessons:-
http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Spanish.aspx
it will only take like 100hrs. You should try its very interesting..
They also offer free spanish lessons:-
http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Spanish.aspx
My anti-virus softwear detected a virus on this site...Use at your own risk!
That depends upon how hard you are willing to work, and how great of an attention span you have, je je!
Ani
I don't believe you can be quantatative with an answer. I understand what people are saying but like latinapunkro, what you put in is what you are going to get out of a task. Either way, it will be fun trying!! 
Relative difficulty of popular world languages: http://aboutworldlanguages.com/LanguageDifficulty/
I would not dare to say a number of hours since it's a different language. It really depends on how long you are willing to practice. A full immersion course would be great in order to learn it fast, although not many people have got the time to do so. In a language school..mmm here, we are told that in a year in 1.5 hour lessons from Monday to Friday, we become intermediate English speakers, but as I said it depends on you.
