Welcome to the Better German podcast.
My name is Susi Blümel, and I will teach you German and everything around the
language , the countries and the culture.
So this week's episode about how long it takes to learn German, is actually
taken from a video from a video interview that I did a while ago.
So I'm going to also put the whole video on YouTube.
So if you want to see it as a video, then you can see it there too.
Enjoy this episode.
So, how long does it take to learn German?
if you're a total beginner, and you want to start speaking a little bit,
this generally can be done, I've seen it done in maybe 100 hours of learning.
And when I say hours of learning, I suppose that you have a way of learning,
either a good course or a good tutor that you're like making good progress
with, plus your extra time, you take to practice to read, to write sentences
or whatever you do to practice.
So it should take somewhere on average people about 100 hours to go from
nothing to go to the first level where you can start speaking about your
immediate environment in short sentences.
This sounds maybe long or short, but that's on average
something that people have.
And then after that, It's maybe about two, three hundred hours to come
to the next level where you can use very basic tenses, you can also speak
about the past a little bit and about the future, and, maybe just to give
you an idea, after that, about three hundred hours for every further level.
That being said, it can make a difference, which language you're speaking originally.
If you speak English, you may have a little bit of a harder time to
understand the German grammar than maybe if your native language is Russian.
sounds maybe funny, but Russian or a few other Slavic languages have, according
to the grammar, similarities with German, and it's going to be harder.
It is work.
I think it's work to learn any language.
but German maybe, I think German could be a little bit more difficult in the
beginning than, for example, English.
It is relatively easy to start speaking English or to start speaking Spanish.
These are languages that easier in the beginning.
German is a little bit more like French or probably Russian, which I've not
really tried to learn, but I know it a little bit from some students.
it's not so easy to start in the beginning, like you have to learn
quite a bit to like even make correct.
Shorter sentences, but that's not that there's too much importance
given on the correctness of the sentences in the beginning.
So the next question was.
If I want to go on vacation to German speaking country.
How long do you think it would take me to learn enough German?
To talk to language?
to get along.
Cool.
Wow.
That's an interesting question.
First of all, most of my students actually try to learn German because they live in
a German speaking country and it's not their native language and they need it.
So it's a very different situation, but it's a good question because
obviously people learn German maybe to speak to German speaking people,
which I think is a very nice thing.
first of all, the good news is, in the big cities at least and in the tourist areas,
I think, in all three of these countries, you will find people that speak English.
I mean, it's a general thing.
It's not like in in maybe France or Italy where it is very hard to
find people that speak English.
So that's the good news However, if you put in these first 100 hours that
I said in the beginning, that will give you, the possibility to speak
about your immediate environment.
I think it will give you credit because If you go to a place and you make
an effort and you show that you care to learn the language, even though
it's not perfect, I think people will be happy about it and will like it.
However, obviously to really understand, Austrians or Germans or,
or Swiss, it obviously takes longer.
It takes much longer.
yeah.
Okay.
And the next question was.
If someone wanted to start a business in, the German speaking area.
how long, would it take to learn to speak, German, good enough to do that.
Oh, wow.
That's a good question.
Okay, good.
Let me first, I will, I wanna say something, even though I'm trying not
to, to use too many, how do you say, I.
Special words.
there is something called the European Framework, for foreign languages,
basically, and they have a numbering system for the level of the ability
to use a foreign language and it starts with A0, A0 means you're a total
beginner and you know nothing, basically.
And, A1 is this first level I said you can achieve with
usually about a hundred hours.
And, then we come to A2.
Which is, by the way, an important level, because you need A1, for example,
if you want to get a visa in Austria.
The first visa, they require you to know A1.
And to really have that level It's about a hundred hours.
A2 is a little bit more advanced.
You need this for the next visa.
Like if you want to have a visa, where, where you can stay about
two years in Austria or something like that, then you need A2.
And that's maybe another 150 hours.
And then the next level that is very, the, next levels are
B1, B2, and then it's C1, C2.
So B1 and B2 are already longer levels than, A1 and A2.
So, I would say B1, B2 is about two, three hundred hours of learning while
being in a German speaking environment.
So, it's learning for about three hundred hours each plus going out and having
communication, conversations with people that are in a German speaking area.
And then C1 is a level that most people will only try to achieve when they
want to go to university, to be honest.
I mean, most people that I know, even business people,
will usually be happy with B2.
So I think when you are in a B2 level, It means you can speak about
pretty much anything except for maybe highly philosophical or scientific.
Subjects and I think most people are very happy with B2 and then if you want
to start a business and you have B2 Then you can talk to people and get an
idea of how they are and communicate with them But then for the real serious
stuff you get a lawyer or interpreter, which you will anyway, even if you
speak German So I would say If you sum this up, this is about 100 for A1, 200
for A2, 300 for B1, and 300 for B2, so this is about 600, 800, 900 hours,
I would say, so you can do the math.
It depends a little bit on how much time you put into it.
I do not think Even though it is offered as intensive courses, that these
things work as super intensive course.
Like, you do not really achieve a B2 level by doing a 50 hours
a week course for six months.
I don't think it works that way.
But you may be able to pass a B2 exam.
However, if that's, yeah, I don't suggest that because I think if
you live in in a German speaking country you should actually speak the
language and not just have the exam.
In summary.
I mean, first of all, learning German, if you really go into this, and if you
live in a German speaking area, I think you have to understand that you never
stop learning learning a language.
my native language is German.
I've been speaking it for, like, almost 50 years.
And, I don't stop learning German.
I still I look in a dictionary and so on.
So this is not something that ends.
However, if you want to learn German and you like start putting in maybe one hour
every day, I think, what did we say?
In about three years, you can be at the level where you you know enough German
to apply for the Austrian citizenship.
This is not the only prerequisite you have, but many people that come to Austria
want to be able to eventually apply for a, Permanente Niederlassungsprivilegung,
so that means that they can stay here or even a citizenship if they
married an Austrian, for example.
and in order to do that, you need B1 2 level.
And I think, and you can, you should be able to achieve that in
learning about three years, like one hour every day on average.
With a good course or a way that helps you because it can be much longer
if you have a bad course, obviously
And if you are looking for a course or for classes, We can help you.
I offer everything from individual lessons, to group lessons.
and online self learning courses.
Self-paced courses.
And you can find the info's on bettergerman.info and you
can also make an appointment, for a first free consultation.
I'll put the link in the show notes and I wish you the best for your
German learning experience and.
if you want to reach out, then hear from you soon.
Bye-bye.