Realistic expectations

The honest numbers

• FSI estimates ~1,100 classroom hours for professional working proficiency — call it 1,500–2,500 total hours of quality engagement for comfortable fluency, depending on intensity and method.
• At 2 hours/day, that’s roughly 2–3 years to genuine comfort. At 30 minutes/day, much longer — consistency and volume both matter.

What progress actually feels like

Progress in an input-based approach is invisible day to day and unmistakable month to month. You won’t notice acquiring the definite conjugation; you’ll notice, one day, that a sentence which should be hard just… made sense.

Milestones worth tracking

1. First Hungarian sentence understood in the wild
2. First full kids’ episode followed without pausing
3. First 1,000 Anki cards mature
4. First novel finished (however slowly)
5. First conversation where you forgot you were “practicing”

Track hours and immersion time, not streaks. Streaks measure attendance; hours measure exposure.