I was pondering the success and failure of human endeavor today: I came to the conclusion that for the faint-hearted, success is likely to be only fleeting. Why? Because the formula for success is simple:
1% inspiration + 1% perspiration + 1% luck + 97% perseverance = success
For a lot of adult learners of any skills, the formula really counts against finally prevailing in whatever arena they want to enter. It’s just difficult. Because professional success needs hundreds or even thousands of hours of work to achieve success. In fact, true mastery of any discipline requires approximately 8000 hours of labor to achieve sufficient skills.
So, go figure: unless an adult student of language is willing to put up with the grind, then mastery is simply not possible. Let’s figure it: if an adult student decides to learn Chinese, then comes to class for 2 hours a week, they would need 80 years to achieve mastery. Of course,you can shorten that period dramatically if you really have to by using the intensive route.
But it’s difficult to see how you can avoid the ‘hard slog’.