Mapping The Amount Of Time It Takes To Learn A Foreign Language

In most RPG's there are allowances for characters with a high enough intelligence to learn additional languages. Quite a few systems are vague on the details and allow the DM to come up with his own time frame on how long this would take. I found these real world examples quite enlightening. That and I'm a sucker for maps.

The map above  visualizes the languages of Europe (at least those deemed diplomatically important enough to be taught at the FSI), coloring them according the average time commitment they require of an English speaker. In pink, we have the English-speaking countries. The red countries speak Category I languages, those most closely related to English and thus learnable in 575 to 600 hours of study: the traditional high-school foreign languages of Spanish and French, for instance, or the less commonly taught but just about as easily learnable Portuguese and Italian. If you'd like a little more challenge, why not try your hand at German, whose 750 hours of study puts it in Category II — quite literally, a category of its own?

In total, the FSI ranks languages into six categories of difficulty, including English's Category 0. The higher up the scale you go, the less recognizable the languages might look to an English-speaking monoglot. Category III contains no European languages at all (though it does contain Indonesian, widely regarded as one of the objectively easiest languages to learn). Category IV offers a huge variety of languages from Amharic to Czech to Nepali to Tagalog, each demanding 44 weeks (or 1100 hours) of study. Then, at the very summit of the linguistic mountain, we find the switched-up grammar, highly unfamiliar scripts, and potentially mystifying cultural assumptions of Category V, "languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers."

To that most formidable group belong Arabic, Chinese both Mandarin and Cantonese, Korean, and — this with an asterisk meaning "usually more difficult than other languages in the same category" — Japanese. Now if, like me, you consider studying foreign languages one of your main pursuits, you know that possessing a genuine interest in a language — in its mechanics, in its ongoing evolution, in the cultures that created it and the cultures it in turn creates — can do wonders to get you through even the most aggravating difficulties on the long journey to commanding it. Then again, I'm also a native English speaker who chose to move to Korea, where I study not just the Category-V Korean but the Category-V* Japanese through Korean; you might want to take with a grain of salt the words, in any language, of so obvious a masochist.

You'll find the full Foreign Service Institute language difficulty ranking list below.

Category I: 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours)Languages closely related to English 

Afrikaans
Danish
Dutch
French
Italian Norwegian
Portuguese
Romanian
Spanish
Swedish

Category II: 30 weeks (750 hours)Languages similar to English 

German

Category III: 36 weeks (900 hours)Languages with linguistic and/or cultural differences from English

Indonesian
Malaysian
Swahili

Category IV: 44 weeks (1100 hours)Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English 

Albanian
Amharic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Burmese
Croatian
Czech
*Estonian
*Finnish
*Georgian
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
*Hungarian
Icelandic
Khmer
Lao
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
*Mongolian
Nepali
Pashto
Persian (Dari, Farsi, Tajik)
Polish
Russian
Serbian
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Tagalog
*Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
*Vietnamese
Xhosa
Zulu

Category V: 88 weeks (2200 hours)Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers 

Arabic
Cantonese (Chinese)
Mandarin (Chinese)
*Japanese
Korean
* Usually more difficult than other languages in the same category

20 Quick Questions: Rules

Brenden from the Untimately blog posted a list of 20 questions / rules clarifications a DM should decide and inform the group of fairly early before play.
I'm sure most of these answers won't come as a surprise to 1ed players, but everyone does have their own flavor and preferences. Here are mine.

1. Ability scores generation method? Roll 4d6 6 times drop the lowest die, re-roll 1's the first time they come up only. Rolls arranged in order, you may swap one set of stats. 
2. How are death and dying handled? 0 HP unconscious and dying, lose 1 HP per round until stabilized/treated. Dead below -10 HP. If healed above 0 HP useless for the day (at least depending on severity of wound). Lose all spells, can't fight, and move at 1/2 speed at most .
3. What about raising the dead? Yes, but the cost will usually be a quest not gold.
4. How are replacement PCs handled? You come back at -1 level of lowest level member in the party.
5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else? Typically group initiative.
6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work? Yes 20 is a crit and 1 a fumble. Roll on custom table to determine the severity of the blow or the degree your clumsiness hindered you or a team mate.
7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet? Prevents being knocked unconscious in certain situations.
8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly? Of course you can, we're playing 1ed.
9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything? Yes, of course you can kill everything, including yourselves.
10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no? Yes, although I do ease back to some extent. You only lose the equivalent XP not the actual level. You do die if reduced to 0 level.
11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death? You know it.
12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked? Needs to be maintained fairly accurately on the character sheet. Left to the honor system, but DM will check randomly.
13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time? Yes, you will need to train to increase in level, it doesn't happen auto-magically in the middle of a dungeon. Fighters will have to go get a tutor and practice with that new weapon they acquired and want to wield. MU will have to find/borrow/buy the spells they want to cast upon gaining a level.
14. What do I get experience for? Treasure, combat, and magic items as well as smart game play.
15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination? Either way a player wants to approach it. Low level thieves would do well if they didn't rely on their actual stats but instead used smart game play. Unfortunately not to many players catch on to this. To many years of playing relying on stats I guess.
16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work? Varies, but yes. BtB rules for morale
17. How do I identify magic items? Spells, sages, mages, bards, and just plain old fiddling around with it might work. As with everything there are consequences to every action.
18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions? Yes, to a certain degree, but only in large cities or huge metropolis's. Don't expect a village blacksmith to stock that Holy Avenger you want. Same goes for potions.
19. Can I create magic items? When and how? Yes, at high level with some very expensive components and rare ingredients.
20. What about splitting the party? Leave it up to the group. Although "Never split the party" is my motto when actually playing and not DMing.

House Rules

Character Creation
The core AD&D 1st ed. rule books will be used. DMG, Player's Handbook, and Monster Manual. No Unearthed Arcana, or other books will be used. That being said, certain things will probably creep in, so see me if you have any questions.

• Roll 4d6 drop lowest die, re-roll 1's. You may swap 1 attribute.

The most important two house rules are stated below.

Rules of the Campaign
• Rule #1. The DM is always right.
• Rule #2. In case the DM is wrong see Rule no. 1

Minor Changes to the world order.

• Calling on your deity - Anytime during a game session a player may call upon his chosen deity. This is typically used for help after a bad roll in a critical situation, ie. character death imminent. This is resolved by the DM and the PC each rolling a d20, if both die rolls match the deity intervenes. However, if the rolls do not match by a score of 10 or more, bad things occur, up to and including permanent character death.
• Max. number of raises - A character may only be raised a number of times equal to his starting Con. score.

What you need to bring to the game.

Here’s the list of things that players should bring to the gaming session:
• Completed Character Sheet—See the DM regarding character creation for more information.
• Character Figurine/Representation—this will represent your character on the map. (This item is optional as I will provide mini's for the party.)
• Dice—self explanatory. I’ve got some dice I can lend, but I’d rather you bring your own.
• Paper—For writing things down on.
• Pencil—For writing things with.
• Right Attitude—For having a good time.