How long does it take to learn Russian?

It is the first question everyone asks, and the honest answer is: longer than an app advert tells you, but sooner than you think before it starts being fun.

The US Foreign Service Institute, which trains diplomats and has more data on this than anyone, puts Russian in its Category III languages. That means roughly 1,100 hours of study to reach professional working proficiency. Sounds brutal. But that is full professional fluency, and almost nobody learning Russian actually needs that.

The alphabet takes about a week. Cyrillic looks intimidating and is not. Most letters either match Latin ones or come from Greek, and a good teacher will have you reading simple words in the first couple of lessons.

Basic conversation, introducing yourself, ordering food, getting around, takes most people three to six months of weekly lessons with a bit of practice between them.

Holding a real conversation about your life, your work, your opinions, usually lands somewhere between one and two years. This is the point where Russian stops being a subject and starts being something you can actually use.

Comfortable fluency, where you stop translating in your head, is a multi year project for most people. Anyone who promises otherwise is selling something.

Consistency beats intensity. One hour a week, every week, for a year will take you further than a burst of enthusiasm that burns out by February.

A teacher who corrects you properly. Apps are fine for vocabulary, but they will let you practise your mistakes for months without telling you. Bad habits in Russian grammar are much harder to unpick than to avoid.

And a reason that matters to you. The learners who progress fastest are the ones with a real why: family, a partner, work, travel, a love of the literature. Motivation is worth more than any method.

A week to read. A few months to get by. A year or two to really talk. And a language that rewards you the whole way, because Russian opens up a world of literature, film, music and people that most English speakers never touch.

If you want an honest assessment of where you could get to and how fast, that is exactly what a first lesson is for.