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After studying English for 11 years (starting in 2nd grade) and living in the US for two years, I did not consider myself fluent. Sometimes I was scrambling for words even in everyday conversations, and I needed a dictionary to read newspaper articles or write papers for class. Maybe I am just particularly bad at learning languages, but if it’s that difficult to go from German to English (which are quite similar), then I highly doubt that you can become fluent in Chinese with 3-4 years of classroom instruction and a short study abroad.</p>