I am asking this because I'm a secondary-world fantasy writer. In my story, there's a similar first-contact thing going on and my protagonist has to learn the language of the locals in two months. Obviously, she has no books or any people preceding her to help her, all she can do is communicate with the natives. However, I can't find any information on how history has dealt with this during the exploration of America, which is why I turn to you guys.
How much time did it take for the Native Americans to learn English/Spanish/French/Dutch/another European language? Or, how much time did it take the explorers to learn the locals' language and how did they do so?
Thank you all so much in advance.
Copying from another post:
You may find the answers you're looking for in these previous threads listed in the Language section of our Popular Questions wiki:
TL;DR Europeans learned to communicate with natives in lots of ways. Sometimes, conquistadors used shipwrecked sailors years before and learned the local language to translate. Sometimes the locals translated poorly for their own political ends.