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How long does Spanish actually take?

The US Foreign Service Institute has been timing this for decades, and the figure everyone quotes is only half of what they publish. FSI puts Spanish at 30 weeks — 690 classroom hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency. But FSI also states that a typical week is 23 hours in class and 17 hours of self-study, so the real total is closer to 1200 hours of work. The pace below divides that full total rather than the classroom half, which is why these numbers are longer than the ones you have seen elsewhere:

Worth saying plainly: that figure is for full professional proficiency, which is a much higher bar than most learners need. Holding a real conversation in Spanish usually arrives at somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the way in.

Kinds of Spanish lesson

Teachers list what they specialise in, so you can match on purpose rather than on price alone.

• Spanish tutors for beginners

  Teachers who work with absolute beginners every day and can run a first Spanish lesson entirely in a language you share.

• Conversational Spanish tutors

  Lessons that are mostly you talking. For learners who can read Spanish but freeze when someone answers back.

• Business Spanish tutors

  Meetings, email, negotiation and presentations — Spanish for the situations your job actually puts you in.

• Spanish tutors for kids

  Teachers experienced with children, who keep Spanish lessons short, build them around games, and keep a parent in the loop.

• Spanish exam preparation tutors

  Teachers who know the Spanish exam formats, mark to the real rubric, and work backwards from your test date.

• Intensive Spanish courses

  Several Spanish lessons a week with homework between them, for learners with a deadline rather than a hobby.

• Native Spanish speaking tutors

  Teachers who grew up speaking Spanish, for accent work, idiom and the register textbooks never cover.

• Spanish grammar tutors

  Focused work on the Spanish structures that keep breaking, with exercises built from your own mistakes.