From my experience, it takes total immersion in the language to become fluent. I spent two years in Brazil and it took 6-8 months before I reached the point wh

From my experience, it takes total immersion in the language to become fluent. I spent two years in Brazil and it took 6-8 months before I reached the point where I began to think in Portuguese. It's a pretty amazing thing though, once you reach that point. You're thinking and even dreaming in another language. I still have dreams in Portuguese even though it's been 15 years since I returned to the US.