It is the first question most people ask before they book a course, and it is the one question most language schools will not answer. “It depends,” they say. That is true. But it is not helpful when you are trying to decide whether to take four weeks off work or a whole year.
So here is an honest answer, with numbers. It will not be exact, because you are not a machine, but it will be close enough to plan with. And it will explain why two students can sit in the same class at CIE Oxford for the same eight weeks and get two different results.
First, decide what “learn English” means
“Learning English” is not one goal. It is several, and they take different amounts of time.
Ordering food, asking for directions, buying a train ticket: that is A2. Following a conversation with friends, handling a job interview, understanding most of a TV programme: that is B2. Writing an essay at a British university or arguing your case in a meeting: C1. Each of these is a real, useful level of English. Each has a different price in time.
Most people who say they want to “speak English” actually mean B2. That is the level where English stops being an effort and starts being a tool. So most of this article is about how long it takes to get there.
The numbers
The CEFR, the European scale that runs from A1 to C2, comes with rough estimates of the teaching hours needed to reach each level. These are averages from many years of exams and many thousands of students.
A1: around 90 to 100 hours.
A2: around 180 to 200 hours in total.
B1: around 350 to 400 hours in total.
B2: around 500 to 600 hours in total.
C1: around 700 to 800 hours in total.
C2: around 1,000 to 1,200 hours in total.
These are hours of guided learning, which means lessons with a teacher, plus the homework and practice that go with them. They are not hours of living in Britain, watching films, or hoping.
Notice two things. First, the steps get bigger as you go up. A1 to A2 takes about 100 hours. B1 to B2 takes about 200. This is the intermediate plateau, and it is normal. Second, the numbers are totals, so if you are already B1, you do not start from zero. You need the difference.
What that means in weeks
Here is where the numbers become a plan. Say you are B1 and you want B2. That is roughly 200 hours of guided learning.
On an intensive course of 25 lessons a week, plus an hour or two of homework each day, you cover around 30 hours a week. Two hundred hours is about seven weeks. In practice most students need eight to ten, because nobody learns at full speed every day.
On a part-time course of six hours a week, the same 200 hours takes about eight months. At home, with one lesson a week and no other practice, it can take three years, and many people give up before they get there.
This is why the same distance can feel like a short walk or a long journey. The distance does not change. The speed does.
What makes it faster
The estimates above assume an ordinary student in an ordinary classroom. Several things change the speed.
Your first language. If you speak Dutch, German or a Scandinavian language, English shares many words and structures with yours and you will usually move faster. If you speak Japanese, Arabic or Chinese, the alphabet, the sounds and the word order are all new, and the same level takes longer. This is not about intelligence. It is about how much of the map you already have.
Hours outside the classroom. This is the big one. A student in Oxford who speaks English at breakfast with a host family, on the bus, in shops and in the evening with classmates from other countries is getting several extra hours of practice a day. The classroom hours are the same. The total is not. This is the real reason studying in Britain is faster than studying at home, and it only works if you use it.
Doing the boring things. Reviewing yesterday’s vocabulary. Redoing the writing after the teacher corrects it. Recording yourself and listening back. None of this is exciting, and all of it roughly doubles what you keep from each lesson.
Your age. Adults learn grammar and vocabulary faster than children. Children pick up pronunciation more easily. Neither is a barrier. Plenty of students reach C1 in their fifties and sixties.
What makes it slower
Speaking your own language all day, then attending an English class in the evening. Studying for an exam without ever using the language for anything real. Long gaps between courses, because what you do not use, you start to lose after a few months. And waiting to speak until your English is “good enough”, which is the mistake we wrote about in Letting Go of Perfect. English improves by being used, not by being stored.
A realistic plan
If you are starting from A2 and want to use English confidently for work or study, expect 300 to 400 hours of guided learning, which is around three to four months of full-time study in Britain, or about a year and a half part-time at home.
If you are B1 and want B2, expect eight to ten weeks intensive, or most of a year part-time.
If you are B2 and want C1 for university, expect another eight to twelve weeks intensive, and be ready for the fact that this step is more about precision than new knowledge.
At CIE Oxford, courses run from a week to a full academic year, and most students combine an intensive programme with the informal practice that Oxford provides for free. A teacher can assess your level in the first days and give you a realistic estimate for your goal, which is worth more than any table.
The honest answer to “how long does it take” is: longer than the adverts say and shorter than you fear. And the students who get there fastest are rarely the ones with the most talent. They are the ones who counted the hours, and then made sure they happened.
