system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Skyrim] What exactly is required for a normal person to learn Magic and Shouts?

* I  know that they are two entirely different things, but I thought I would just ask for answers for both in one question rather than ask to separate questions.
* By normal, I mean someone other than the Dragonborn
* **Magic**
* How long does it usually take someone to learn a spell?
* How common is the use of spells from people other than Mages?
* **Shouts**
* It is said that mortals are only able to learn and use the Thu'um through a  long process of meditation and the practice of the words, but what exactly does that mean?
* Why isn't learning the words of the Thu'um enough to use it?
gpt
Magic itself seems to be like any other course of study you can pursue in Tamriel.  Perhaps more difficult and less reliable than smithing or alchemy, for example, but far from impossible to get into and excel in if you have the potential and the drive to achieve it.  For example, the Dragonborn has taken down scores of common bandit camps, and at least one will have access to a basic Restoration spell, or up to mid-grade Destruction spells like Fireball or Ice Storm.  As a modern day analogy, taking a few computer classes won't make you a programmer, but the skills will still come in handy when Grandma's computer goes buggy for the tenth time this year.

Shouts are a wholly different, more primal form of magic.  Using the Voice is not merely a matter of knowing the incantation or gesture and firing off an Ice Spike in Nazeem's direction, but truly *understanding* the Word of Power and taking its meaning fully unto your very being.  For dragons, as expressions of Akatosh, this comes naturally.  But for a mere mortal, it takes time and focus to even begin such a process.  By the time a mortal can use a full Shout - Unrelenting Force for example - they know not just every possible meaning of the word, but how each word impacts and affects the world around them.  To provide another real-world analogy here, consider some speeches by world leaders; very rarely are these done on the fly, and most have been prepared after weeks or even months of constant revision and recitation, with the speaker knowing *exactly* what they say and *exactly* how to get their point across, with everyone knowing *exactly* what they mean.