How much time did it take you to reach where you are?

Hi! I am curious about how much time do you think it takes (or has taken you) to be where you are today. 

Of course, the process is very messy. We may study every day for a year, or 3 hours on weekends, or every now and then, or maybe even stop for months. Some may study very hard in their home country, while others may experience full immersion in a foreign land. There's a whole variety of ways people manage their time with language learning, and that results in varied experiences with the process. 

I am interested in hearing your experiences --how long has it taken you to be where you are? Do you think that one can accurately estimate how much time does it take to be fluent (C1 for example), or do you think it just fluctuates way too much?

As for me, I have been exposed to English my whole life, and it was fairly easy to learn because it is everywhere, so I wouldn't be able to put a number of hours on how much time it took me. 

As for my German, I studied 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, during 5 semesters in high school. Then I left it for a couple of years and took it up again one year ago. I would say that getting me to B2 took me about 3.5 years of fairly constant effort.

How about you? :)

I am a native Japanese having learned Mandarin and English. I learned Mandarin at a very young age when I lived in China. The earlier you learn the language, the easier it would be to learn it. Even after more than 15 years since I was actually immersed in Mandarin-speaking environment, the comprehension level of Mandarin is good enough to understand native speakers. 

I started learning English on the 1st year of secondary school and mainly learned it to pass an enrolment exam for University. As you may know, most Japanese do not speak fluent English even after learning it for at least 5 years at school. Without exception, I was also the one who was bad at speaking English. Many Japanese people feel that English is not an easy language to master for them as these two languages have by far different grammatical structure and pronunciation. Through studying abroad, and working in an English-speaking environment, I gradually have been improving my English speaking ability. However, I think it will take another 5 years to reach C2 level. 

That is very interesting. It surprises me the amount of time you can go without speaking Mandarin, and still being able to use it. I agree with the fact that it is probably because you learned it at a very young age. If I go without speaking German for a while, It gets blurry, because I started learning it as a teen. Becoming bilingual at such a young age is probably like learning to ride a bike: you learn it and it sticks. I am glad to hear you have been able to keep it with you all your life, I hope it goes on!

I also had noticed many Japanese people had trouble with English, but I never pondered why that happened. The reason being that the languages have very different grammar structures and pronunciation makes perfect sense. Reading your comment makes me marvel at how people around the world are so different, and how limited is my view on so many things. 

Just be patient with English! I admire your effort, and I am sure it will come through. The human capacity for learning is impressive if we put effort into it.