FSI category lookup
Every language named on the current NFATC timeline, its class hours, and the legacy category label readers may still encounter. Model v2 uses only the current values and its integrated ILR 3 (Speaking + Listening) endpoint.
552–690 class hours
Category I current · Category I legacy five-category label
- Danish — 552 h / 24 weeks *
- Dutch — 552 h / 24 weeks *
- French — 690 h / 30 weeks *
- Italian — 552 h / 24 weeks *
- Norwegian — 552 h / 24 weeks *
- Portuguese — 552 h / 24 weeks *
- Romanian — 552 h / 24 weeks *
- Spanish — 690 h / 30 weeks *
- Swedish — 552 h / 24 weeks *
* Category I hours are transparent arithmetic: the page lists each language's weeks and a typical 23 class hours per week.
828 class hours
Category II current · Category III legacy five-category label
- German — 828 h / 36 weeks
- Indonesian — 828 h / 36 weeks
- Malay — 828 h / 36 weeks
- Swahili — 828 h / 36 weeks
1,012 class hours
Category III current · Category IV legacy five-category label
- Czech — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Finnish — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Greek — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Hebrew — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Hindi — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Hungarian — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Persian — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Polish — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Russian — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Thai — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Turkish — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Ukrainian — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
- Vietnamese — 1,012 h / 44 weeks
2,200 class hours
Category IV current · Category V legacy five-category label
- Arabic — 2,200 h / 88 weeks
- Cantonese — 2,200 h / 88 weeks
- Japanese — 2,200 h / 88 weeks
- Korean — 2,200 h / 88 weeks
- Mandarin Chinese — 2,200 h / 88 weeks
Why old tables do not match this one
The current page uses four categories and an integrated Speaking + Listening score. A separate current Foreign Affairs Manual table and many older five-category reproductions use S-3/R-3 and older timelines. The labels overlap; the target and numbers do not always.
The practical rule: ask for the source version, endpoint and hours. Model v2 uses 552–690 / 828 / 1,012 / 2,200 class hours. The old 600 / 900 / 1,100 sequence describes a different table, not an alternate spelling of the current one.
The longer version, including how this site got it wrong first.
Sources
The current State Department page names the languages, weeks, class-hour bands and integrated Speaking + Listening endpoint used here.
- Foreign Language Training — US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center
The current NFATC training timelines: a typical week is 23 class hours plus 17 hours of self-study, aimed at an integrated ILR 3 in Speaking and Listening. Category I lists 24–30 weeks; using the page's typical class week, this site derives 552–690 class hours. Categories II–IV print 828, 1,012 and 2,200.
How this is worked out
This is a lookup rather than a calculation — nothing is personalised. It shows every language named on the current NFATC training-timeline page, its current class hours, and the legacy category label readers may still encounter.
The current four-category scheme and the widely reproduced five-category legacy scheme are shown together for reconciliation, not treated as interchangeable datasets. A page quoting a Roman numeral with no source version, endpoint or hour figure cannot safely drive an estimate.
It has no entry when the current page has none
The current NFATC page does not name Navajo, Basque or Icelandic, although Icelandic appears in legacy material. That makes Icelandic legacy-only, not evidence that it was never measured. Model v2 returns nothing rather than mixing versions or filling a gap with somebody else’s estimate.
Every tool here can decline to answer, and that is the most useful thing they do.
Common questions
- Which numbering scheme is the official one?
- The current NFATC training-timeline page uses four categories. A five-category form is widely reproduced in older and community material, but it is not the source for model v2. That is why a Roman numeral alone is unusable: the source version, endpoint and hour figure have to travel with it.
- Why is there no “usually harder” dot in this table?
- The current NFATC training-timeline page does not publish a within-category dot or a separate numeric penalty. Older tables and transcriptions sometimes do. Model v2 follows the current page, so Japanese shares the explicit 2,200-hour baseline with the other Category IV languages and no language receives an invented within-category surcharge.
- How are the current hour values sourced?
- Directly from the current NFATC training-timeline page. It prints 828, 1,012 and 2,200 class hours for Categories II–IV; for Category I it prints 24- and 30-week schedules, which this site multiplies by the same page’s typical 23 class hours per week to derive 552 and 690. Legacy category labels are shown only for reconciliation and never drive model v2.
Sources
Everything this tool rests on. The current NFATC programme baseline is printed or transparently derived from the same page; the factors applied on top are ours and are marked as estimates.
- Foreign Language Training — US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center
The current NFATC training timelines: a typical week is 23 class hours plus 17 hours of self-study, aimed at an integrated ILR 3 in Speaking and Listening. Category I lists 24–30 weeks; using the page's typical class week, this site derives 552–690 class hours. Categories II–IV print 828, 1,012 and 2,200.
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