The fastest way to learn Galician is to spend most of your study time on Galician you can mostly understand. That kind of Galician is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch Galego para peques, short cartoons in Galician with picture symbols on the screen, and watch each one twice. Learn your first words and phrases from native Galician speakers on uTalk, then say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Pick a Galician podcast about something you like from Podgalego's list, and listen to each episode twice. Read Galician web pages with Readlang, which shows what a word means when you tap it, and talk about what you read for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch Galician series and films on AGalega with subtitles on, one episode a week. Find YouTubers and other creators who post in Galician on Obradoiro Dixital Galego's list.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch Galician series without subtitles, and read a novel such as Ollos de auga by Domingo Villar. Keep the Real Academia Galega's dictionary open, and look up only the words that block the story.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read Galician novels and newspapers, and talk about them, for their own sake. GaliciaLe lends e-books and audiobooks from Galicia's public libraries, and people who live outside Galicia can borrow its books in Galician too.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Galician?
Galician is not on the U.S. Foreign Service Institute's list, and its closest relative there, Portuguese, takes about 24 weeks of full-time classes, or 552 class hours, to reach professional fluency. Galician and Portuguese both grew out of one language spoken in the Middle Ages, and FSI puts Portuguese in its first group, the languages it calls close to English.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Portuguese (closest to Galician) | Category I | 24 |
| German | Category II | 36 |
| Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
FSI students have about 23 hours of class and 17 hours of study on their own each week, so 24 weeks comes to 552 class hours, or 960 hours in all. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | FSI classes for Portuguese (552 hours) | FSI classes and study on their own (960 hours) |
|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 3 years | About 5¼ years |
| 7 hours | About 18 months | About 2⅔ years |
| 14 hours | About 9 months | About 16 months |
| 28 hours | About 4½ months | About 8 months |
These are class and study hours from full-time Portuguese courses, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Galician on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Reading Without ListeningGalician has seven vowel sounds and writes them with five letters, so e and o can each sound two ways. Listen to everything you read.
- Materials Made for Spanish SpeakersMany Galician courses and books are made for people who already speak Spanish, so they explain things in Galician or Spanish. Check what language a course explains things in before you start.
- Content Far Too HardA Galician film where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Galician app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Galician, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Galician app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Galician in three months?
You can learn enough Galician to greet people, order food and talk about your day. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is about a third of the 552 class hours FSI plans for Portuguese.
How much should I study Galician each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Galician you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Galician hard for English speakers?
Probably not, judging by its closest relative: Portuguese is in the Foreign Service Institute's group of languages that take the least time. Many Galician words look like English ones, such as familia (family) and música (music), and most of the time goes into the verb forms, which you pick up fastest from Galician you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- Wikipedia: Galician-Portuguese (the common ancestor of modern Galician and Portuguese)
- Wikipedia: Galician phonology (seven vowel sounds written with five letters)
- r/Galiza: Any books to learn Galician for beginners? (a learner with the Celga 4 certificate on materials made for Spanish speakers)
- Xabarín: Galego para peques
- AGalega on the App Store (series and films with subtitles)
- GaliciaLe: e-book lending from Galicia's public libraries
