Language Challenge

According to this chart, it should only take 6 months to learn any of the following languages:

• Spanish
• Portuguese
• Italian
• Romanian
• Dutch
• Swedish
• Afrikaans
• Norwegian.

... and only 11 months to learn:

• Hindi
• Russian
• Vietnamese
• Turkish
• Polish
• Thai
• Serbian
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Finnish

... and a startling 22 months to learn:

• Arabic
• Japanese
• Chinese 
• Korean

I have a number of complaints about this chart:

1.  Where is German?  With an approx. 98 million speakers (in 2005), more people speak German than Italian, French, or Romanian.  Why didn't it make the list?  (BTW - German is the one additional language I'm actually interested in learning).

2.  I simply wish this information were available (though the math is easy enough to do):  How many hours per week and per day does this study assume I'm studying?  (It breaks down to about 5 hours per day, 5 days per week, or 3.5 hours per day 7 days a week.)  So, for a working person like myself, who does not have 5 hours a day during the school year to devote to language-learning, but maybe 10 hours a week... I'm looking at more like 15 months for the first group of languages, 28 months for the 2nd group, and 56 months (almost 5 years!) for the 3rd group.

3.  Where does English fall on the list for people from each group?  Is it inversible?  (Can I assume it will take a Vietnamese speaker 11 months to learn English because it's that different and a Japanese speaker 22 months based on the measure of differences between the two languages?)  I understand the basis of the chart is how long it will take for an English Speaker to learn the language, but what about all those millions and billions of English Language Learners out there?

4.  Also, this list is clearly for professional language learners, ie, CIA, or Air Force members for whom 5 hours of studying a day is plausible.  What do the numbers look like for children?  For students who are simultaneously trying to learn content matter in the 2nd language?  For children who move from a 3rd world to a 1st world country with no previous schooling?  For students who move from a 1st world to 1st world country with lots of previous schooling?

The numbers that are thrown around in the world of Secondary ESOL education are 2-3 years to develop social language, 5-7 years to develop academic language, and both of those numbers fluctuate based on the students' prior schooling experience and prior exposure to English.  

Anyhow, the chart is interesting and inspiring.  I don't have 6 free months to learn a language from the 1st group of languages, but I do have 11 weeks to expose myself to a new language, like German or Vietnamese (which would actually be helpful in my job, unlike German).  For any mono-linguals out there, act now!  Acquire a second language!  I'll do it with you!