this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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I went to Germany for summer work while I was at University; I was 24 at the time, due to military service prior to college. I spoke no German when I landed in Munich.
By the time I left Germany, I was 26 and spoke fluently enough to pass as a German from "some other state." So I have some observations about this.
For Americans, German is an easy language. Count the number of credits your college offers for language courses. Spanish will be 2 (maybe 3) credits; German will be 3. French is 4. Russian and Japanese are 5; Mandarin may be 6. That's directly proportional to how hard the language is for native English speakers; it's how many hours of classes you'll have to attend per week for the language. You've picked a moderately hard one, with French.
A month of immersion is worth a year of classes, with a caveat. If you want to learn French, find some temp work in France (or Quebec) and go spend a year working and living there. It will totally pay off.
The caveat? I didn't study German, so I couldn't really write it, and if I had to speak formally the facade would have collapsed. Immersion + study is the best combination.
Such that, when I got back to university, I tried to enter German language courses, and failed. 101 was absurdly easy, and impossible to take. 201 was absurdly hard, and impossible to pass. I could speak fluently, I just couldn't do any bookwork. So, I ended up taking 3 years of French, instead.
Consequently, today - decades later - I can hold a passable casual conversaion in German, but not write letters in it; and I can read French pretty well and make myself understood through writing, but I've yet to find a French person who will acknowledge that they cam understand my spoken French. So, again: immersion plus study.
By the time I finished my last French class, and had my minor in it, I was 28. My advice there is that you should still be able to do it. It just won't be as easy as when you were younger.
IME, you won't pick much French up from sitcoms, and self-directed language courses are best as supplemental material. Move to a French-speaking country and work, and enroll in language classes there immediately. In a year, you'll speak French. In two, if you have a good ear, you might be accused of fluency.