FSI Category II Languages: The 36-Week Group

FSI Category II is the smallest group on the U.S. Foreign Service Institute's language list, and the oddest-looking one. It puts German next to Haitian Creole, Indonesian, Malay and Swahili, all at approximately 36 weeks of full-time training, or 828 class hours, for a native English speaker to reach professional working proficiency.

Here's the current list, why such different languages end up with the same number, and what 828 hours looks like if you're studying around a job.

On this page

The Category II list

Source: the State Department's Foreign Language Training page, checked September 2026. Unlike Category III ("hard languages") and IV ("super-hard languages"), Category II has no label. It sits between the Category I languages at 24–30 weeks and Category III at about 44.

FSI describes a typical week as 23 hours of class plus 17 of self-study, so 36 weeks is roughly 36 × 40 = 1,440 hours of total effort, of which 828 are in class.

Why these five end up together

FSI doesn't explain its placements language by language, so what follows is the usual linguistic reasoning, not FSI's. The short version: the five are hard for opposite reasons.

German: familiar words, harder grammar. German is a close relative of English, and a lot of basic vocabulary is recognisable (Haus, Wasser, Hand). What slows English speakers down is the grammar English lost centuries ago: three grammatical genders, four cases that change articles and adjective endings, and word order that sends verbs to the end of subordinate clauses. Dutch, which is just as closely related but has simpler grammar, is in Category I at 24 weeks. More detail in our German hours guide.

Indonesian and Malay: easy grammar, unfamiliar words. These are two standardised forms of the same language, largely mutually intelligible. They use the Latin alphabet, have no tones, and verbs don't change for tense or person. The catch is vocabulary: apart from loanwords, almost nothing looks like English, so every word has to be learned from scratch, along with a system of prefixes and suffixes that build words from roots.

Swahili: regular, but built differently. Latin alphabet, spelling that matches pronunciation, and no tones, unlike most of its Bantu relatives. The work is in the noun classes (Swahili sorts nouns into classes, each with its own prefixes that adjectives and verbs have to agree with) and in verbs that carry subject, tense and object as prefixes on one word.

Haitian Creole: French words, its own grammar. Most of its vocabulary comes from French, but its grammar is its own, with tense and aspect marked by small particles rather than conjugation. For an English speaker who doesn't know French, the vocabulary is familiar only where English borrowed the same French words.

The categories aren't a strict ladder

The older FSI data shows how rough the bands are. A 1993 FSI report by Lucinda Hart-Gonzalez and Stephanie Lindemann scored the speaking proficiency that English-speaking students reached after 24 weeks of training. In the version published by economists Barry Chiswick and Paul Miller, Malay and Swahili scored 2.75 and German 2.25, the same as Spanish. Indonesian scored 2.00, the same as Russian.

That doesn't contradict the current list. The 1993 score is speaking only, at the 24-week mark, while today's categories are the time to an integrated professional level in speaking and listening. It does tell you something useful: within one category, and even across neighbouring ones, your own background will matter more than the category boundary. A French speaker learning Haitian Creole, or someone who grew up hearing Malay, is not starting where FSI's average student starts.

What 828 hours looks like

The B1 column uses this blog's rule of thumb, roughly half the FSI hours for a conversational level. It's a heuristic, not an FSI figure. For German there's an official reference point too: Germany's integration course budgets 600 teaching units of 45 minutes, 450 hours, for the language part aimed at B1 (see our German B1 hours guide). That lands close to the half-FSI estimate of 414.

Planning a Category II language

• German: spend early hours on articles and case endings with lots of exposure, rather than rules alone. They're the part that stays shaky longest.
• Indonesian, Malay, Swahili: the grammar will feel fast at first. Budget for vocabulary, since that's where most of the 828 hours go. Reading and listening volume help more than word lists.
• All of them: log your hours from day one. After 200 hours, compare your pace with the 828-hour benchmark and adjust. LangTrack keeps the running total and daily goal for you.

FAQ

What languages are in FSI Category II?

Five languages: German, Haitian Creole, Indonesian, Malay and Swahili. FSI estimates about 36 weeks of full-time training, or 828 class hours, for a native English speaker to reach professional working proficiency in each.

Why is German in Category II and not Category I?

FSI doesn't give reasons, but German grammar is the usual explanation: three genders, four cases that change articles and adjective endings, and verb-final word order in subordinate clauses. Dutch, an equally close relative of English with simpler grammar, is Category I at 24 weeks.

Is Indonesian easier than German?

FSI gives them the same 36 weeks. Indonesian grammar is simpler (no tenses to conjugate, no genders, no tones), but almost none of its vocabulary is related to English. German has familiar vocabulary and harder grammar. They come out about even overall.

How many hours does Category II take?

About 828 class hours over roughly 36 weeks, plus self-study. FSI's typical week is 23 hours of class and 17 hours of self-study, so total effort is closer to 1,440 hours. At one hour a day, 828 hours takes about 2.3 years.

Related reading: FSI Language List: Hours to Learn Every Language · The Easiest Languages for English Speakers · FSI Category III Languages · How Long Does It Take to Learn German?