I usually spend 1-2 hours. Any more than that and I get too tired. At my pace it takes about a year and a half to 2 years to get to where I can read and listen. But I reckon it could be cut down if I was spending more time a day.
I heard that training diplomats spend 8 hours a day on the language they’re learning: a full time job. Imagine that. I’d be completely exhausted and my brain would be buzzing by the end. You reckon you could do that?
Yeah speaking is always the last thing I work on too because you need a partner and I prefer to be confident in my ability to understand first.
I count my progress in words that I know. Usually around 15k to 20k is a good level to start speaking. I don’t know how much reading it takes before I get there. I suppose it depends on how new-word-dense the material I read is. It’s always a big leap going from learner material to native speaker material but before long simple texts won’t do it anymore and I start reading novels to hit my daily goal.