Story 30

This table is titled "Expected Levels of Speaking Proficiency in Languages
Taught at the Foreign Service Institute". In other words, how long it takes
to study certain languages to achieve the level that the institute expects
for its employees. The amount of time differs due to the difference in
difficulty level and your aptitude for language learning.

Group 1: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian, Creole, Italian,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish Swahili, Swedish.

Length of training                 Aptitude for Language Learning
                                   Minimum         Average         Superior
8 weeks (240 hours)                1               1/1+            1+
16 weeks (480 hours)               1+              2               2+
24 weeks (720 hours)               2               2+              3

Group 2: Bulgarian, Dari, Farsi, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Urdu
Length of training                 Aptitude for Language Learning
                                   Minimum         Average         Superior
16 weeks (480 hours)               1               1/1+            1+/2
24 weeks (720 hours)               1+              2               2+/3
44 weeks (1320 hours)              2/2+            2+/3            3/3+

Group 3: Amharic, Bengali, Burmese, Czech, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian,
Khmer, Lao, Nepali, Pilipino, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhala,
Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese
Length of training                 Aptitude for Language Learning
                                    Minimum         Average         Superior
16 weeks (480 hours)                0+              1               1/1+
24 weeks (720 hours)                1+              2               2/2+
44 weeks (1320 hours)               2               2+              3

Group 4: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Length of training                 Aptitude for Language Learning
                                    Minimum         Average         Superior
16 weeks (480 hours)                0+              1               1
24 weeks (720 hours)                1               1+              1+
44 weeks (1320 hours)               1+              2               2+
80-92 weeks (2400 hours - 2760 hours) 2+            3               3+

(Sorry English is not included in this chart; English is a requirement for
employment in the Foreign Service).

Key for the numbers:
0  Novice Low, Novice Mid (Has no functional ability)
0+ Novice High (communicates with memorized material)
1  Intermediate(Gets into, through, and out of survival situations simply;
asks questions; answers questions; creates)
2  Advanced (Gets into, through and otu of survival situations with a
complication; narrates; describes)
3  Superior (Handles unfamiliar topics of situations; Hypothesizes; Provides
supported opinion)
4  Superior (REpresentes point of view; negotiates; persuades; counsels;
tailors language to audience)
[Very few people reach superior status without being a native speaker]