The Nerdy Way to Set Language Learning Goals

If you want to learn a language, the first thing you need to do is set reasonable language learning goals.

And no – “Study 30 minutes a day” does NOT count as a goal.

If you want real results, well…you have to get a bit nerdy.

So in this post, I’ll break down what it takes to learn a language. And by the end, you’ll have the perfect action plan to learn any language you want.

But first…

Why “Study 30min / day” is NOT a Goal

Short answer: “Study 30min / day” is an ACTION you take to reach a goal – it’s NOT the goal itself.

I’ve heard many people say, “Just study a little bit every single day; you’ll get there. Language learning is a life-long journey.”

Okay, true… but this makes one major assumption.

That you’ll have the patience to continue studying even when you see 0 results.

I tried this with Spanish, early on, and FAILED.

For a bit, I felt like I was learning, but I was never able to actually speak – even to my Spanish speaking parents.

It was just embarrassing.

“What am I doing wrong?” I asked myself.

Well…I didn’t really have any solid language learning goals.

Later, I found out that studying 30 minutes a day is nowhere near close enough to actually get fluent in a reasonable time.

It would’ve taken me 12 years to learn Japanese

No joke, if I started learning Japanese by only studying 30 minutes a day, it would’ve taken me 12 YEARS to become conversationally fluent.

…and I’ll prove it to you.

As a starting point, I’m going to use the timeline created by The Foreign Service Institute (FSI Timeline).

The FSI Timeline breaks down the “hours of study” it would take to learn different languages. This is the same starting point I used to learn Japanese.

The 4 Categories of Difficulty

Category I
600-750 Hours

Category II
900 hours

Category III
1,100 Hours

Category IV
2,200 Hours

Note: The FSI Timeline was created using native English speakers learning foreign languages. However, this system can still give us a good base to build our language learning goals from (even if you’re a native speaker of a different language).

For example, Korean is listed as one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker, but it may be one of the easier languages for a native Japanese speaker.

So in my case (as a native English speaker):

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How Long Does it takes to Learn a Language?

Knowing these hours, we can roughly estimate how long it would take to learn different languages. For example:

Time per day	Spanish (600 hours)	Japanese (2200 hours)
30 minutes	3.28 years	12.05 years
1 hour	1.64 years	6.03 years
2 hours	0.82 years	3.01 years
3 hours	0.54 years	2.01 years

But you’re not a robot – What about rest days?

The chart above assumes that you study every day without fail.

But real life doesn’t work that way.

• Sometimes you’re tired from a long day at work.
• Sometimes you’d rather spend time with family.
• Sometimes you just want to take a vacation.

So when we calculate our actual language learning goals, we need to account for rest days.

Calculate Your Language Learning Goals (Hours Studied)

So lets say I want to learn Spanish in 2 years – and let’s say I’m starting from 0.

It would take an estimated 600 hours to reach this goal.

But if I miss a day, I will be behind.

To avoid this, when setting your goals, don’t forget to account for days where you might forget or where you want to take a break.

We add 1 metric – “Days of Active Study”

In the following example, I will be using a 4 : 1 ratio – or 80% – during my calculations.

AKA: For every four days of active study, you can skip one day and still maintain the goal (4 days on; 1 day off).

You can set your own ratio; for example, the normal workweek, 5 : 2 or 71.4% (5 days on; 2 days off).

Breakdown

Total Goal (Hours Studied)	600
Current Hours Studied	0
Time to Complete	730 days (2 years)
Days of Active Study	584 days (80% of total Time to Complete)
Hours Needed Per Day	1.03 hours

The Math

Total Goal - Current Hours Studied = Total Study Time to Reach Goal

÷

Time to Complete (Days) * Ratio = Days of Active Study

=

Hours Needed Per Day

Doing this, you get clear and defined language learning goals.

• You have a deadline of 2 years
• And you even calculate days of rest

In total, the example above gives you 73 rest days a year (or 146 days total).

Now that might seem like a lot of free days…

However, some days you may only study for 20-30 minutes.

Nothing wrong with that, but…

These days add up faster than you would expect.

But you can also use this to your advantage.

Play with these rest days and have fun – you can even use this to plan for vacations.

But it doesn’t end there…

It’s not just study time you need to worry about

#1 Problem for Language Learners = Lack of Vocabulary

Earlier, I said, “I stilled failed Spanish for a different reason.”

Well, this is the reason…

Good news is that we can apply the same logic to calculate our vocabulary goals too.

How Much Vocabulary Should You Know?

For this starting point, I’m going to use the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

CEFR level	Active Vocabulary	Passive Vocabulary
A1	300	600
A2	600	1,200
B1	1,200	2,500
B2	2,500	5,000
C1	5,000	10,000
C2	10,000	20,000

The point where most people would feel “conversationally fluent” is about a B2 level.

Now before I go on too far, I feel like I should explain the difference between Active Vocabulary & Passive Vocabulary.

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When calculating our goals, our main focus will be on MAXIMIZING our passive vocabulary.

The reason why we focus on passive vocabulary and not active vocabulary is because…

Active vocabulary will naturally grow over time as you immerse yourself in the language.

In other words, you can’t build your active vocabulary without building your passive vocabulary first.

With this, we can start applying the same math, from before, to see how long it will take to build our vocabulary.

How Long Does it takes to Learn Vocabulary?

Since we’re aiming for fluency, I’m going to use 5,000 words as the goal (to reach a conversationally fluent B2 level of passive vocabulary).

We can, again, roughly estimate how long it would take (similar to what we did for hours to study). For example:

Time to Go From 0 to 5,000 Words [Viewed]

Words/Day	Time it would take
5	2.74 years
10	1.37 years
15	0.91 years
20	0.68 years
25	0.54 years

Notice: The chart counts the “First View” of the target words. It does NOT account for the time it takes to move them into Active Vocabulary or even Passive Vocabulary.

But you “probably” don’t have a photographic memory…

It takes time to:

• See a word and to understand it…

And it takes even more time to:

• Understand a word and to actively use it.

So when we calculate our goals, we need to account for this time as well.

Calculate Your Language Learning Goals (Vocabulary)

So like before, let’s say I want to learn Spanish in 2 years and I’m starting from 0.

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But unlike our calculations for hours to study, we have one more thing to worry about…

We need to consider the time to build these words into our passive vocabulary.

So we will make 1 change to our math:

Time to Complete (Vocabulary) = 75% of Time to Complete (Hours)

So if the main goal is 2 years, this time we will calculate as though it was 1.5 years.

This way, we give ourselves at least 6 months (before the end of our goal) to grow these new words naturally.

Breakdown

Total Goal (Vocabulary)	5,000
Current Words Known	0
Time to Complete	547.5 days (1.5 years)
Days of Active Additions	438 days (80% of total Time to Complete)
Words Needed Per Day	11.41 (~12) words

The Math

Total Goal - Current Words Known = Total Additions to Reach Goal

÷

Time to Complete (75% of your "Hours to Study" Goal) * Ratio = Days of Active Additions

=

Words Needed Per Day

Why Language Learning is NOT a Lifelong Journey

Well, at least, it shouldn’t be in the beginning.

The language learning community is very welcoming – so many people want to be helpful.

“Don’t give up. As long as you keep going, you’ll get there eventually.”

“Language learning is a lifelong journey.”

It sounds nice…

But I think this backfires sometimes…

Why? Because I believe it stops people from taking Strong Actions to actually reach their goal.

I mean – if you have the rest of your life, do you really have to try hard today?

Anyone who says,

“Yeah, I watched some TV shows, studied a bit every day, played some games – and before I knew it, I was fluent.”

Is massively downplaying how much effort they actually put it.

Telling people this…does a disservice to people who don’t see it the same way.

It’s similar to the saying, “You’ll never work a day in your life if you’re having fun.”

This is great! And if you’re having fun – ALL the Better!

But that doesn’t mean work isn’t happening.

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Someone open about their effort will say,

“I studied every day for at least an hour or more.”

“I surrounded myself with the language.”

“I made it a part of my life.”

This is how it feels to have clear goals work towards them.

There’s a lot of effort that goes into learning a language.

And it’s 100% rewarding, if you stick with it…

But to stick with it. you have to have clear goals…

AKA you have a clear END.

Why an End Goal Matters

How do you know if you’ve succeeded as a language learner if you don’t have an end goal?

Of course, you should always strive to learn for the rest of your life…

But language learning is a tedious process. Without an end goal, it’s easy to lose sight of why you started in the first place.

Here’s how I define the end goal:

The key word is, “Active”.

We still learn our native language every day, but we no longer “need” active study.

Of course, you can always learn more – and continue a Lifelong Journey in Language Learning.

But you should reach a goal that makes you happy – first.

So…

Where do you want your end goal to be?