How Long Does It Take to Learn Greek?
Last updated on September 29th, 2024
It’s that question every student of Greek asks themselves, especially at the beginning of their language journey: “How long does it take to learn Greek?” With Greek notoriously being known as a difficult and grammatically complex language, it’s a valid question that helps estimate how much time and effort one needs to put into one’s learning routine.
Table of Contents
Some Rough Numbers
The US Foreign Service Institute (FSI) with decades of experience in teaching languages to U.S. diplomats, categorizes languages into 4 groups each more difficult than the previous one with Greek being in category III. The languages in this category are considered hard because they have significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English, requiring a learning timeline of approximately 44 weeks or 1100 class hours. This is how much time an English-speaking student needs to reach ‘General Professional Proficiency’ in the language, though realistically, the actual time can vary based on several factors that I’ll analyze next.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) hasn’t set such specific timelines for languages, but below are some unofficial estimates required for all the different CEFR levels of Greek:
Important Factors
Of course, all these numbers are just estimates of teaching hours. In reality, other factors affect the learning timeframe apart from just the time spent in the classroom. Some of these are:
- The native language of the learner.
- Any prior linguistic experience.
- The learning method and quality.
- The type of learner someone is and their natural ability.
- The time spent for practice.
- How motivated the learner is.
- The language goals of the individual.
- Lifestyle.
- Age.
The Native Language of the Learner
Although Greek belongs to the large Indo-European family of languages, same as English or Spanish, it’s the only language in its branch (the Hellenic branch), unlike branches such as the Romance languages that include Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian. Hence it looks and sounds like no other language.
However, depending on your native language, Greek might have significant differences from your own or significant similarities with your own. For example, if your native language is German, you will find the Greek declension system straightforward because German has a very similar declension system as well. In this case, being a native German speaker has an advantage. This is not the case for an English speaker, though, since English has a much simpler declension system. It is therefore harder for an English speaker to wrap their head around the declension cases and various declension groups in Greek.
Prior Linguistic Experience
Previous language learning experience gives you an advantage even if the languages you studied were not similar to Greek at all. The simple fact that you went through the learning process of a foreign language, means you may have figured out already what method and practices help you retain information better. The advantage is even greater if you have studied a language that has similar grammar structures as Greek. For example, knowing Spanish helps you understand the Greek verb conjugation system better because it’s very similar to the Spanish one.
Learning Methods and Quality
It is important to understand how different learning tools or methods affect the timeframe of your language journey. Nowadays, gamified mobile apps are very popular, cheap, and practical, however, most of them are based mainly on short-term memory and won’t get you too far if you want to reach a high level of fluency. Group or private lessons will always be more effective especially when in-person because of the interactivity between the people involved. A charismatic teacher can also do wonders.
Intensive or language immersion programs can speed things up significantly if you want to learn or improve your Greek in the shortest time possible.
Learner Type and Natural Ability
Not all learners are the same. Some people are more visual, others more auditory, social, or kinesthetic so it’s important to identify your type and use the right learning resources. For example, if you listen to Greek podcasts because you think it’s a good practice (as it’s commonly believed) but in reality, you are a visual learner, you are probably not helping yourself much. This can create a false impression of slow progress and frustration which may lead to low motivation and even loss of interest to learn the language. Remember, every learner is different and what works for someone else, might not work for you. Also, some people have a natural ability to learn languages more easily than others, so don’t compare yourself with others. Each person has their own pace when it comes to the learning process.
Time Spent for Practice
Doing lessons or studying by yourself is just one part of the equation. The other part is how much time and how often you get to practice what you’ve learned with others, preferably native speakers. Just clocking the classroom hours is not enough if you don’t dedicate extra time to interact with other Greek speakers and use the language (inter)actively. Also, a little every day goes a long way compared to a couple of hours once a week. Sometimes even 15-30 minutes per day is enough to keep in touch with the language and advance your Greek slowly but steadily.
Motivation
As I’ve mentioned in an older post, maintaining high motivation levels is the key to success. Without it, the learning process becomes a long battle rather than an enjoyable and rewarding experience. When you are motivated, you are more focused and learn more effectively in a given timeframe.
Language Goals
The question “How long does it take to learn Greek?” also depends on what you consider enough Greek for your needs. Are you interested in just learning the Greek alphabet to be able to read Greek texts? Then probably a week or two would be enough to achieve that. Is your goal to be able to communicate with family about everyday life? In that case, a level B1 would probably be enough for you to get by and you could still say “I know Greek!”. In my experience, this could take just a few months of intensive work. But if your goal is to study or work in Greece, a higher level of fluency would be needed which could take a couple of years of consistent study. Just remember, that there is no end to learning a foreign language. It’s always a work in progress 🙂
Lifestyle
Nowadays, most of us live in fast-paced environments that don’t always allow daily study of the language. In addition, many people study Greek on the go during their commute to work or university or during their gym workout, for example. It’s important to understand that making the time for Greek is not enough. It also needs to be quality time, free from distractions or multitasking so your study time is effective and engaging.
Age
While age would seem like an important factor here, if you’ve read my post “Why You Are Never Too Old to Learn Greek” you’d know that even in more mature ages mastering Greek is possible with the right lifestyle, resources, attitude, and consistency. So don’t see age as an impeding factor.
Real-Life Examples
Colleagues
In my mid-20s, I worked for a few years in the tourism industry in Greece. In cruise ships and land tours specifically. During that time, I met many foreign coworkers who had lived and worked in the country for many years and had learned enough Greek to be conversational or completely fluent. They were mainly Filipinos, Spanish, and English speakers. Although they were working in a multicultural environment, most of them had managed to be conversational within a couple of years. And they achieved that by acquiring the language naturally through immersion and exposure instead of lessons.
My Mom
My mom is another example of a person who learned Greek as an adult and became fluent without any lessons.
Her language journey started when she came to Greece while pregnant with me. My father had to leave Greece for work during the first 10 months of my life so my mom was left behind all alone with a newborn baby. The only help she got was from my paternal grandmother. However, my grandma did not speak her language or English, and neither did my mom speak any Greek. My mom would visit my grandma daily and stay with her from morning until the afternoon. It was during that first year of life that she managed somehow to slowly make sense of the language and become conversational. In just a year! No lessons, no books. Just a little booklet with the alphabet and some basic phrases. At first, she only learned how to read but not how to write. It wasn’t until I reached 1st grade that she started learning how to write properly on my side while I was also learning at school, however by that time I have clear memories that she spoke to me in Greek fluently. With some mistakes here and there, of course, and small pronunciation issues, but overall she was good! Here’s her story:
Conclusion
The answer to the question “How long does it take to learn Greek?” is not easy, as we’ve seen, because it depends on many factors. However, it is safe to say that it doesn’t take as much as you might think… if you do the right things. We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s all Greek to me!” so there’s always a preconception that it’s a hard language. But depending on the level of fluency you want to achieve, it could take anything from a few months to a few years. If you can identify what works best for you, stick to a consistent study schedule, and daily practice, ideally in an immersed environment, you’ll start seeing results fast!
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