The fastest way to learn Swahili is to spend most of your study time on Swahili you can mostly understand. That kind of Swahili 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.
Read the short stories on Hadithi za Kiswahili with their Swahili audio, and check the English version when you get lost. Listen to each story twice, and say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the English and look up only the words that stop you. Listen to the six-minute talks between two Tanzanian speakers on LanguageCrush, and start short talks with a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Add the free GLOSS reading and listening lessons, which are sorted by level, and listen to each one once more without reading along. 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 The Team, a Tanzanian drama on YouTube, one episode a week. Add the short news videos from DW Kiswahili, and replay a line when it goes too fast.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read the news on BBC News Swahili, and look up only the words that block the story in MobiTUKI, the Swahili-English dictionary from the University of Dar es Salaam.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read Swahili novels and newspapers such as Mwananchi, and talk about them, for their own sake.
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 Swahili?
Swahili takes about 828 class hours to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. That puts Swahili in its second group for English speakers, with German, Indonesian, Malay and Haitian Creole.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Category I | 30 |
| Swahili, German | Category II | 36 |
| Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
The State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) teaches Swahili to foreigners in three levels, from beginner to advanced. Each level takes four weeks of classes, four hours a day from Monday to Friday, which comes to 80 class hours, or 240 hours for all three. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | SUZA beginner level (80 hours) | All three SUZA levels (240 hours) | FSI professional fluency (828 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 5 months | About 16 months | About 4½ years |
| 7 hours | About 2½ months | About 8 months | About 2¼ years |
| 14 hours | About 6 weeks | About 4 months | About 14 months |
| 28 hours | About 3 weeks | About 2 months | About 7 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Swahili on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Noun Class Tables AloneSwahili sorts its nouns into classes, and the words around a noun change to match it, as in kitabu changu (my book) and vitabu vyangu (my books). A table of the classes is hard to use until you have read each one in many sentences.
- Starting With ShengKenyan songs and shows often use Sheng, a slang from Nairobi built on Swahili and English. Its words change fast and are not taught in classes, so start with standard Swahili and add Sheng later.
- Content Far Too HardA Swahili news show where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Swahili app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Swahili, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Swahili app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Swahili in three months?
You can learn enough Swahili to greet people, order food and talk about your day. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is a little more than two of the State University of Zanzibar's 80-hour levels.
How much should I study Swahili each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Swahili 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 Swahili hard for English speakers?
It is in the middle, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure: Swahili is in its second group, so it takes longer than Spanish and less time than Russian. One Swahili verb can carry a whole phrase, as in nilipokupikia (when I cooked for you), and most of the time goes into verbs like this, which you pick up fastest from Swahili 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)
- State University of Zanzibar, Department of Kiswahili for Foreigners (classes four hours a day, Monday to Friday)
- State University of Zanzibar, Kiswahili for Beginners (duration: four weeks)
- Wikipedia: Swahili grammar (noun classes and verbs)
- Wikipedia: Sheng slang (a Swahili and English slang from Nairobi)
