How long for Learning a New Language

Well, am hoping to learn a new language. My current languages are Swahili and English. My yearning is to Learn either Chinese, French or Spanish (not yet decided). For those who have done it before, how long am I likely to take to attain conversational level, considering I learn for about 5 hours per week, and what are the underlying factors that will determine this duration?

I think it will depend of the time and effort you put in. But learning in general is indefinitely. I think there is always something new to learn even in your native language. Like for me, my native language is Spanish and they will add new words recognized by the Real Academia Española, which is one of the most famous Spanish dictionaries. It changes with the times, so as I said every day you can learn something new.

I guess it depends on how you define conversational level. The language itself is a factor too as some are easier to learn than others. 

Do you have a language partner? This really helps as it forces you to use the language on a conversational level. 

There are some discussions here that might answer your questions 

https://languagetools.io/forum/pp/6227. 

https://languagetools.io/forum/pp/6610. 

https://languagetools.io/forum/t/2181 

With 5 hours a week, I would say you can attain a conversational level in 6 months to a year. It also depends what kind of conversations you are referring to and would like to have. Basic ones, chit-chatting, deep phylosophical questions, debate/argue :)) etc... 

Mel.Palogan wrote:

it depends on how you define conversational level

I completely agree. I will say though that Chinese will take you 3-4 times as long as the other two.