How much time do I need to learn German?!

I self-taught myself German in exactly one year, it was a challenge my friend gave me. Anyways you really need to be committed to learning, and you really should have a proficient German speaker to help you with tenses and declensions.

Basically, you need to study the language for about 1-2 hours each day. Don't start on basics such as days of the week, months, animals. I would recommend searching the internet for free German learning sites I know this one great one(which really helped me).

But DON'T GET ROSETTA STONE- it helps with memorization but not being fluent.

http://www.livemocha.com/

No one can answer that for you, because everyone learns differently. It could take a person a year to learn a language, and for another person it could take 5 or more years to learn the same language you're learning. It all really depends on how fast you pick up on things, and you have to have a good memory to memorize everything from vocabulary, grammar, full blown paragraphs, and speaking to a German person.

Also, they pronounce w's, v's, f's, and other letters differently than what you would in English. Pronunciations are really important too when you're learning a language.

you can't really speak a language fluently without living in that country, adapting to their society, and being a part of their culture. A couple months in Germany, you can speak the language, a year in America, you know the language, you may know the accent, but you will never talk like a local.

speak 5 languages fluently