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How to Learn German from Scratch to a b2 Level in 5 Months – How Much Time Was Neededīefore we move on to Mathew’s total learning time, let’s put things in perspective and answer the following question first. It only shows that you can’t change every person’s approach to learning. She just preferred to learn how she always did. Not that her methods were any easier or more pleasant, mind you. The last character trait which a good student should possess is: 3) being coachable Understandably, he was able to resist the temptation to bum around. Failing to do his daily tasks would cost him dearly. I mean, who wouldn’t? I made sure that his motivation to keep maintaining his learning pace was sufficient. I knew that at some point, he would say, “that’s enough. I mean, how else are you going to follow through on our plan? Luckily for you, you don’t need to be disciplined by nature. It’s the prerequisite for effective learning. You need to create habits and build learning systems as quickly as it is only possible.Īnother trait which can help you with that is: 2) being disciplined Of course, you should be aware that motivation alone doesn’t suffice. He wanted to learn German asap to “have an opportunity of doing my medical specialization in Switzerland.” That allowed him to bounce back from every obstacle he encountered. Mathew’s motivation was apparent and specific. That’s why you need it so much at the beginning. Without it, most people wring their hands and give up upon suffering the first major setback. Even though most of them learn relatively fast and achieve B1/B2 level in about 12 months, just a few of them get to B2 level in 4-8 months. I have taught many students throughout the years. What’s worse, he considered himself to be bad at learning languages. Sometimes even my native tongue (Polish) seems to be problematic.ģ) How much time did you need to achieve a B2 level in English – Over 10 years, I think.Īs you can see, Mathew had almost no language experience. I actually considered myself to be linguistically retarded. Let’s get to know a bit of something about our language hero.ġ) Tell us first about yourself: I am 26 years old and a doctor intern (a soon-to-be hematologist).Ģ) What was your previous experience with languages before our mutual challenge – Learning English from the age of 12 – private and regular school lessons.
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I think that this format should allow you to get the most value out of it. Not to mention – most interviews are boring.
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It would leave dozens of bigger and smaller questions unanswered. Initially, I wanted to write this article in the form of an interview.
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