<p>How many semesters should one take to be able to travel to a country the speaks that language and be able to communicate effectively with natives. Not anything like extremely technical but just for like shopping, renting hotel, etc.</p>
<p>(for Chinese language)</p>
<p>I took 3 years of French before I studied abroad and I was able to communicate effectively.</p>
<p>My school requires you to have usually completed 122 or 209… so about 2-4 semesters of foreign language, depending on where you start. (If you had that language in high school, probably only about two, if you didn’t, then about four).</p>
<p>Chinese is a lot different from romance languages though. It might be longer.</p>
<p>This is my second semester of Chinese. Next semester, I’m taking two Chinese courses – Intermediate and Independent Studies – and will have effectively two years under my belt before summer. I applied for a scholarship to study in China over summer, and it lists my level as “Intermediate”; three years is “advanced.” Currently, if I went to Beijing, I would not be conversant. My conversational skills are still quite fragmented. I would recommend language partners to supplement your formal education; I’ve learned loads about Mandarin slang words and phrases that I was not taught in class. You probably won’t be fluent, though, until you actually go over there.</p>
<p>You can’t get fluent by classes. You can “get by” with probably 3-4 semesters of a language (at least Romance languages, I’d add on another 1-2 semesters for Chinese).</p>
<p>Immersion in the language is the fastest way to learn it, so once you feel comfortable in a given language, study abroad may be an excellent option.</p>
<p>I took 5 years of french in high school. It didn’t even come close to teaching me near what I already knew. I’m fluent in french because my dad is from Quebec, not because I had 5 years of (terribly taught) french in HS.</p>
<p>There’s no magic point where you’ll become fluent. A class can’t hold your hand and force you to practice and study enough to ever get to that point. If you’re highly interested and motivated, you could become conversationally adept in a year in any language you wanted, but if you just did enough to get by in your foreign language courses, you’re probably looking at three times that.</p>
<p>I have to echo the other posters here saying that going abroad would make all the difference. My Russian improved MUCH more in one summer there than it did in several semesters of classes. Get to where you can handle basic transactional situations in the language (3, maybe 4 semesters?) and then get over to China ASAP (money and time permitting, obviously)</p>
<p>^ buriedalie, what kind of opportunity did you find that let you spend a summer in Russia? I’m considering a study abroad/travel there.</p>
<p>I’m almost done with my first semester of Russian and I can say for sure that if I don’t constantly go over my notes during winter break, I’ll have forgotten most of it in time for Russian 102. Adding to what people have already said, immersion really is the best way to learn a language. On a few week long family trip to Austria, I found myself randomly picking up German (which I’ve never taken classes in) quite rapidly. As a native Chinese speaker, I can tell you that there are many cultural nuances and phrases that you can’t pick up just from learning in a classroom or from a textbook.</p>
<p>Honestly it depends on the person, language and program. I am taking french 1 right now. I have always picked up languages pretty quickly. My class moves fast. I did not take it in HS but someone in my class took it all four years in HS and at the AP Lvl and says that we covered all of that already. The semester ends in about three weeks and i can uderstand the language pretty well. I imagine by the end of second semester i will be able to conversate fluently. By the end of four semesters, i will be fluent completely. Keep in mind though that my french class is taught in french with english thrown in here and there. So it feels like I am in mini France three times a week.</p>
<p>The problem with Chinese are all those tones . My son is fluent in Chinese having lived there for 5 years . He moved there with 1 year of intense study . Immersion is the best ! Everyone is different . My D spoke pretty fluent Swedish after living there 1 summer and 1 year of college Swedish .</p>