How long does it take to learn English?
A beginner can learn English within a year.
That’s pretty fast, although not as fast as some of those crazy "learn in less than 1 month" promises you see online.
Specifically, a year is the average amount of time it will take an adult to become fluent enough to work in English if they start out as a beginner and study at least 5 hours-per-day.
But everyone is different.
How long it will take you to learn English depends on many things:
- Your current level of English - The level of English you need (Hint: for most people, upper intermediate is enough) - Which languages you already speak - If you’re living in an English-speaking country - How hard you study - How much you practice - How good you are at learning languages
The best way to estimate your own (personal) timeframe is to figure out the number of hours it'll take to go from the level you are now—to the level you want to be.
To find out what your current level is, test your English.
CEFR Free Online Test (Usually 15 questions)
This test will give you a score on the CEFR scale, which has six levels from A1 to C2. Decide which level of English you need.
Most people need a B2 level to work in English, but that depends on your job and the country you’re working in. Here are some descriptions of the CEFR levels and what you can do with each one.
Here’s a tiny table for reference:
Level of English (CEFR) Number of Hours of Instruction—
Zero to A1 - 70 hours A1 to A2 - 150 hours A2 to B1 - 300 hours B1 to B2 - 200 hours B2 to C1 - 200 hours C1 to C2 - 200 hours
So, if you’re currently a beginner and you need to reach a B2 level, that’s 70 + 150 + 300 + 200 = 720 hours of instruction.
Divide the total hours into days to see how long it will take you to learn English.
In the above example, taking an English class for 1 hour per week, you would need 720 weeks or almost 14 years to learn English!
However, if you take an English immersion course with 5 hours of lessons-per-day plus 2 more hours of studying and practice, it would take just 102 days for you to learn English.
Assuming you don’t have classes on the weekends, that’s about 6 months.
Hopefully, this brief guide has helped you make a rough estimate of how long it will take you to learn English. And remember: the sooner you start, the sooner you finish.
Reference : ESL Research
