Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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I guess you're really asking two questions there, is it possible and, if possible, is it worth it?
The answer to the first question is absolutely yes in my view. It is possible for adults to acquire (not learn) a language to a native level. The problem is that language education is fundamentally broken. You cannot 'learn' a language by studying the linguistics of the language, you have to just expose yourself to the language and let your subconscious do the rest. I've been acquiring Spanish through comprehensible input for a few months now, and my understanding has just skyrocketed. I've found myself dreaming in Spanish, I've had random phrases pop into my head. It's pretty incredible to experience, and it is genuinely fun to feel this kind of improvement. It's like noob gains at the gym.
But you do need to put in the hours. The website I'm using estimates that it takes around 1,500 hours of comprehensible input for an English-speaker to reach native level fluency. Half that for someone who speaks a Romance language, double it for a non-European language like Japanese. It's possible to do it with one hour a day, but it'll take years. The good thing is, the further along the process you are, the easier it is to get input. Once you're at a level where you can read Harry Potter or watch How I Met Your Mother in your target language and mostly understand it, you can just replace your English media consumption with the target language.
Is it worth it though?
For me it is, I want to be truly bilingual and I want to give my kids a second language too. I want to be able to speak to the Spanish people I know in their mother tongue. I want to be able to visit Spain or Latin America and communicate effortlessly with the locals. I want to gain the cognitive benefits of bilingualism (if they do exist). Whether it's worth it for you depends on what you're looking to get out of it.
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