"How long does it usually take for us newbies to learn trading and start making small bets?"
If you approach Forex like a gambler, then it's immediate. Just pick "Sell" or "Buy" and hope/pray for the best.
If you want to become a long term consistent profitable forex trader, then be properly educated in the world of forex and spend at least four semester reading up, complete with free practice Demo trading, and then going in live with a small trial Live trading account with a properly regulated forex broker which you have chosen after doing extensive research on them in various "Brokers Review" forums around the web.
That's the road all serious forex traders have to take and the experiences can be as pleasant or nasty as you make it to be.
My road was...hmmm, let me think!...exciting, full of expectations, disappointment, despair, elation, and now more like "Okay...so I made a mistake in judging market movement, now where did I go wrong?"....and move on as there is absolutely no point in anguishing over mistakes made.
One thing to remember is, "Never EVER use money that you cannot afford to loss as forex can be generous if your trades are right, but brutally vicious when market goes against your trades."
All the best in your journey and hope to see you guys around for a while!