These definitions of levels are a bit weird to me, cause we are individuals with individual approaches to the language. Me for example, in some fields e.g. at the topic cooking or at pub conversations I am A2 or barely B1 or at reading and writing I am maybe B1 but in other parts I am C1 for sure. Especially the "pub test" is weird to me, as in pubs people say so many special expressions you only know when you grew up in this country, so many phrases, sayings, abbreviations, weird "half- sentences" you JUST SAY (depending of age and social group), in pubs they say so many jokes you never can understand just by the words, and people talk there very fast and swallow letters and word, I would say without C1... C2 you can't really follow fully a pub talk. (Unless a pub talk is like a boring smalltalk like a smalltalk somewhere else). I have also zero vocabulary in business English or political terms or sports, as I have no connetcion to these topics. I had a very long phase of 3 years of serious frustration cause I just didn't get better despite daily talks to a Briitsh friend. Suddenly this phase vanished and my brain pics up here and there new stuff - for ever, and when I am uncertain about something and when I guess then , 95% of my guesses are right when I look it up in dictionary. My level should be called F1: having really Fun at talking the language and despite mistakes and big gaps but I WANT to get better, no matter at what speed.
Thank you for posting this video. I’ve been trying to learn French on you tube and don’t have an opportunity for an immersion opportunity. Can you suggest a basic strategy for memorizing languages for example, Nouns, verbs, present and past tense etc. I’m learning a lot from your videos.
@@mattesrocket CEFR levels are standard now. If you sign up for any language learning program they use these levels. It's a way that language learning has been standardized, especially if you are taking any tests for certifications. If you're just learning for fun, then these levels won't matter. But if you need a certification for university or a job, then it is important to know them.
I don't know about other languages, but for German it's like: - A1: You can go to the supermarkets without problems (at least before the cashier asks: Sammelst du Payback Punkte?). - A2: You can go to almost anywhere by yourself just fine, if the trains don't come late and change platforms, like 95% of the time. - B1: You can hold simple conversations with the locals. - B2: You can hold normal conversations with the locals who are not Bavarians, Austrians, or Swiss Germans. - C1: You'll have no problem leading a normal life here, I guess... - C2: You can understand German jokes now, which are non-existent. So C2 is useless.
"if the trains don't come late and change platforms" - so you can't go anywhere... C2 would probably be understanding sarcasm and irony at least most of the time, which is a test I'd fail despite being native German speaker but I can blame it on the autism
The pub test is a legit good way to see if you're b2. I've been learning French for a few years and I met some French people at a club and we spoke for hours and hours, I understood everything and I said everything I wanted to, they never were confused or adapted to me. This was the first time I was able to call myself fluent without feeling cringe about it. This was definitely one of the greatest highs/feelings I've ever had, I fit in and was respected for the work I put in and felt part of the culture and language I once simply couldn't understand.
Well, then I haven't reach B2 level even in my native language I suppose it's a shitty test, endure several hours in a noisy pub, while participating in a conversation, I'm unable to do it in any language
I've been learning German on and off for something over a year, and I feel like I'm at a higher level for reading and writing vs speaking and listening. I've always been intimidated by listening comprehension and coming up with responses to potential conversation. I'm just now realizing that when it comes to fully immersing yourself in learning a language that there are going to be times when you'll have to step out of your comfort zone. I've started to branch out and watch videos of German speakers with subtitles, and I even think to myself in German sometimes! It's a rough ride, but I just have to keep reminding myself that with enough practice I'll begin to see major improvements in my conversational abilities :)
I've been learning German on and off for so many years but I end up just stopping after a while. I'm starting over again because I've pretty much forgotten everything. I hate myself because I'm just a massive procrastinator/don't help myself. I've always loved languages but I end up getting pissed off with myself because I feel like I'm not making progress.
Das deutsche Sprache ist scheiße das Grammatik ist grauenhaft bei dir muss was falsch gelaufen sein damit du deutsch freiwillig gelernt hat du arme 😂😂😂
@@malcox5218 Von meinem Erlebnis stimmt das gar nicht. Obwohl es ja zunächst schwer ist, die deutsche Grammatik zu begreifen, hat es mir viel Spaß gemacht, sie zu verbessern! Tut mir aber leid, dass du dich so fühlst, aber wir alle haben unsere eigene Meinung, schätze ich... 🤷
It is okay to have an unbalance in your levels. Probably everybody does. Even native speakers. Some of us would rather give a speech and some would send a strongly worded letter. lol Good luck on your German, though.
English - C1/C2 (I hold a certificate C1) Dutch - C2 (Mother language) German - B2/C1 (I hold a certificate in B2, although 1.5 years ago) Spanish - A2 Russian - A1
Kinda similar to me English: C2(Second language) German: C1 Igbo: b2 probably (It's my native language) French: A2-B1 Swiss German: b2( I'm not sure) I want to learn more languages tho
I've been learning English by myself for three years, and for a long time I felt stucked in intermediate level, I couldn't make any progress about grammar and vocabulary. Then I just relaxed about it and exposed myself to conversations with native speakers and this worked so well. Some friends noticed my improvement and they mentioned I sound much more smother. " I still don't know my English level but I feel totally comfortable speaking" 😊
@@karlajoycefonseca4616 sei que não tava pedindo correções mas naquilo que escreveu só tem dois erros pequenos: stucked > stuck, e smother > smoother. Do resto eu diria que parece nativa. Tá de parabéns. Fonte: sou estadunidense.
I honestly think Ollie is the best language teacher on TH-cam. Something about his presence shows an honesty that’s hard to find on the platform. Keep it up Ollie . I bought the Russian story books at my local book store .
I like that you add that many natives would not test at C2. The truth is that a lot of the skills and vocabulary that are necessary for C2 are not neccessary in daily life, so if a person is not particularly academic or involved in certain fields, they just never use those skills. C2 requires being able to comment on topics like politics and medicine and technology and many people have not done that since A Level General studies class (or equivalent). Honestly, people take C2 as the Holy Grail. C2 is amazing and is to be celebrated, but you are fine without it on most days. As an example, I live and work in Japan. I have been here for almost 15 years, but I have never formally studied Japanese. I would test around B2 or C1, I think, but I haven't taken a Japanese test since I got my N2 a decade ago. However, every day I answer the work phones in Japanese. I read and prepare documents in Japanese. I attend meetings in Japanese. I watch movies on the big screen in Japanese. My French, on the other hand, is C2 and my university major. It is better grammatically than my Japanese for sure, but there are tons of things that I would not be confident in doing in French. Ask me to write an argumentative essay on women's reproductive rights though? I will give you a magazine-quality piece. Things I would add... These levels really are just a guideline and not set in stone. While A1 learners are very similar, when you look at B1 and up, there are a whole range of profiles. One person will write more elegantly than they speak. Another understands everything they read or hear, but has less spoken vocabulary. And it is important not to confuse spoken fluency with actual language level. I did duolingo, textbook and 5 months of tv before my first attempt at having a conversation in (Taiwanese) Mandarin. By conversation 3, I was speaking fluently (i.e. I didn't have to really pause and search for for words), but I was still a low A2. Also, the peripheral abilities are greatly influenced by how much experience you have with language as a whole, not necessarily just with the language you are learning now. I teach in a Japanese high school and if my students can't remember a word, they just freeze. Meanwhile, in my very first Mandarin conversation, I was trying to talk about the pandemic and obviously, I do not know pandemic words in Chinese. But I said something like, "Many people sick now. We can not travel," and my tutor immediately figured out what I wanted to say and taught me the words. This paraphrasing is something you mention for the B levels, but it helps that Mandarin is the 13th language I studied. (I do not actually speak them all. Hahaha. Nopes.) The skills that I had picked up from previously asking for words in so many other languages, and maybe even my skill at English (I used to be really good at English, even compared to native speakers, before I moved to Japan and Japan ate my English) really makes it intuitive to find ways to explain the most difficult of concepts in words that 3 year olds use. To add to that, I started watching unsubtitled TV at A2, because my tutor gave me a show to watch on TH-cam. It tricked me because episode 1 had English subs and the others didn't. I figured I had already started, I might as well continue. Now, if a show has subs, I use them; if it doesn't, meh, still watching. This only seems to apply to Taiwanese Mandarin, though. I do not watch shows from mainland China without subs. I do not watch any of my other A1 or A2 languages without subs. The other languages I watch with no subs are French (C2), Spanish (C2), Italian (B2) and Portuguese (because it sounds like Spanish) and Japanese (because I live here), so it really is hard to say why that skill carried over only to Taiwanese shows. Was it just because I happened to watch that first show because I had already started it???
@@Kkubey Good point. This is exactly why I do not have JLPT 1. My native speaker friends looked at the questions and were like, "I have never used half of these expressions in my life!"
There are, according to well respected dictionaries, between 340,000 and 600,000 words in the English language, and Olly's estimate on the number of words required for C2 is about 16,000. Based on these numbers even a C2 speaker knows only about 2.5% to 5% of all the English words. The vast majority of unknown words would be words that are only used within certain fields. Some fields have a pretty high number of words that are unique to that specific field, while others only have a few. You don't need to know all these words in order to be C2, e.g. you don't need to know every single term used within woodworking (joinery, carpentry, jumberjacking etc.) in order to be C2. And no matter how fluent you are in English, there will always be certain things that you have never even heard of.
i have been learning english for a whole year with duolingo and i want to say that it is so hard for me i am ukrainian trying to make videos in english
"By conversation 3, I was speaking fluently (i.e. I didn't have to really pause and search for words), but I was still a low A2." I think you are confusing fluently and fluidly. You are never going to be fluent on A2. On B2 you are at times fluent, but not all the time. On C1 you are fluent most of the time. C2 as you said, is like an undergrad degree, so not needed for most of the regular interactions. It does come naturally over time if you are immersed in that language.
I agree with you on the not forgetting a language once you make it to a solid B2. I studied tons of German in my 20’s and then stopped using it completely afterwards and at 45 it’s just a little rusty. I understand everything fine and I can still talk if needed. Ignoring it for over 15 years. This blows my mind.
Good for you. I've lost most of the vocabulary I had learned in German. It would be hard to evaluate my level today because the surviving words are random, words like Verkehrsampel or Zebrastreiffen have survived while the only animals I can remember are Katze and Hund...
See, I was a B1-2 in Spanish…I was going to school so I could teach it. Now…I’m like back at a1 speaking (my own sentences- I can read aloud fine), im pretty good at reading it, and I can pick up things if I overhear my coworkers speaking it. And my coworkers will practice with me too, which is very cool of them. I used to work in a prison and a few of my Spanish speaking inmates would insist on speaking Spanish with me unless it was an emergency. But it’s a struggle to keep up a convo. I feel like an episode of Dora the Explorer.
Even despite the fact that I fully understood this video I still hesitate that I reached B2/C1 level :) Why is that? I really enjoy English thanks to your videos, Olly. Thank you!
My great memory of speaking French was a lady from Switzerland who was admitted to the AED where I was Nursing and being able to communicate with her. It was such a good feeling to be able to give her that extra comfort.
Thanks for clarifying what each level of fluency means. I haven't been keeping up with my Italian studies for the last 4 years. I believe I was at a B2 level. I just started speaking again to brush up on my skills and I can't believe how much I remember. Sometimes words come to me that I forgot I knew. Sure, the fluidity of my speech isn't what it was, but it will come back in time. I agree once you reach B2 level you will not forget what you have learned.
A few milestones for me, when learning Spanish, were.. 1) Understanding voices over a PA system or in the midst of a lot of background noise. 2) Understanding “yawn-speech” (as I call it, and a bit of wordplay with “yon-speech”) or in other words, still comprehending someone when their speech trails off or is otherwise muffled or interrupted by a yawn, a hiccup, or a slightly ill-timed bite of food, or in any other way that native speakers would presume to be negligible. 3) Understanding unfamiliar accents within a target language. For example, when I first heard a woman in Buenos Aires speak Spanish with a Japanese accent, it really threw me, as I speak NO Japanese, but within a few minutes of conversation I was secretly delighted to realize my brain was able to cut right through both her accent and her occasional grammatical errors. 4) Thinking and even dreaming in a target language. How thrilling it was every time I caught my mind simply bypassing English in order to complete my thoughts directly in Spanish! One caveat: Although I consider myself fluent in several languages besides my native English, to this day I still have to perform any and all mathematics in my head in English. 5) Lastly, on one memorable occasion, I was having a conversation in Spanish with two native speakers (again in Buenos Aires) when a colleague from Colorado approached and asked me a question in English. I later calculated that in that moment, I had not heard or spoken English in over two weeks. I blinked at him, utterly nonplussed, thinking he had just said something in Greek or Russian or who-knows-what. A few moments later I realized that I did in fact understand him and that I had just heard (for only a fleeting moment) my own native tongue as if through foreign ears. IT WAS POSITIVELY BIZARRE! And to this day, I always advocate for fellow native English speakers to exercise unlimited patience with foreigners learning our tongue. Besides so many great discrepancies between written and spoken English, we regularly pull off some very odd tricks in this language we all take for granted! So I say to anyone out there learning to speak English, welcome to the neighborhood, do please ignore those who scowl, stick with it, take all the time you need, and BRAVO!
i totally understand what you mean. Im not yet near your level at all. I've been studying Chinese for the past year. I can hardly understand by ear and i cant speak a reasonable sentence thats more than maybe 3 or 4 words. I can read really well, but any out put at all is my weak spot and i really need to focus on that. It can be really difficult and its made me appreciate foreigners that have learned English.
estoy tratando de aprender espanol, pero mi problema mas grande es que cuando hablo con mis companeros de trabajar o la maestra no les puedo entender si no usan verbos basicos. ademas si estan hablando silenciamente mi mente se perde
I understand completely your fifth statement. I am fluent in Spanish and English (native in Sp) and sometimes I don't notice if something is in one language or the other until someone else points it out or I notice it later.
Great video! It’s taken me forever to realize A1, A2, etc aren’t benchmarks you reach, like steps on a staircase, but more phases you pass through! Like, I can’t truly say I’ve achieved A2, until I’ve gone completely through that phase and am now beginning my B1 journey. It’s so fascinating! Can’t wait to reach B1 for input!
I feel like A1-A2 levels are a lot of fun cause you learn so fast and it is a beautiful discovery phase 😍B1 is enough for most communication situations and with B2 you can do almost anything on daily life and with friends, even at work if it is not too complex or does not have to be 100% precise, like with translation jobs. For business, if possible of course it is best to have a C1. I feel like C2 is almost impossible to reach 🤯
I've gotten basically C2 in English but it took so many things: - Was born in an English speaking province but moved out when I was 8 - English speaking grandma (and fully bilingual dad) - Regular English classes in the education (grade 4-6 + secondaire 1-5 + cegep) - Waaaaaay too much time spent on the intertubes ^^;
Hmm… i feel like i can consider myself a C2 in Dutch. But Yup, it is indeed very hard. In the first year i learned Dutch around 4-5 hours a day. After that first year, i was around a B2 I’d say. I knew around 5000 words. Then, in the next 3 years i improved a lot by speaking it everyday, doing schoolwork and reading books in Dutch in my free time. Now, 4 years later, people dont (or barely) notice that im a foreigner. I score higher on most tests than my Dutch classmates, which damn, impresses even myself. But again, im still not sure whether im an upper C1 or a C2. I feel like getting to this level is almost impossible if you dont literally spend your entire day on it and surround yourself with almost exclusively native speakers. I feel like C2 is the level where you start using idioms etc to be able to express yourself better. C1 maybe. Oh and sorry for all the mistakes, im not a native english speaker + im kinda tired : Edit: rethinking everything, i’d probably consider myself a B2/C1 in english and C1 in Dutch. Im not THAT good 😅
I am 30. Been a c2 level in English for about 3 years. But I have spoken English my entire life. I started at a very early age. Yet it took me a lifetime to get from c1 to c2. And I am French. So i knew half of the English vocabulary already.
@@anielad8721Goin off what you just typed I’d definitely say your English is C2, I thought u were a native speaker until u said u weren’t 😂🤷🏿♂️ I want my Spanish to get to this level 💯
I'm currently at B1 in Korean. Everything thing you said is of course correct. I still think about the correct grammar when trying to say a more complicated sentence. Drinking culture is huge in Korea so i have been able to do the "pub test". So far only 2 times have i not had to strain to understand those talking to me. I'm excited to finally push over into B2 territory. My goal is to get there by next year.
Do you think you have arrived at b2 yet? I’m curious to know how long it took between b1 and b2 because I am hoping at the end of 2024 I can take my b1 Spanish to b2
@JabroniJimmy Actually yes! I've done the bar test/ cafe test. And I'm able to keep up in group settings. Also just got my test scores yesterday and according to the test I'm B2, my tutor thinks I can reach C1 soon . But I'm not sure if I agree with that.
What you said about B2 being the point of remembering the language really hits home for me, honestly. I've studied two other languages, both of which I'm fairly sure I got up to B1, but I didn't practice for a few years, and now I think I've mostly forgotten both of them. I think I'm back up to somewhere between A2 and B1 for one of the two languages, since I restarted my learning again. I think I'd like to make it to at least B2 this time.
Or maybe some sub level of A1 is called for. For example, I am sub A1 in a handful of languages since I know a few ohrases and vocabulary words. For the vast majority of human languages, I am at A0 since I don't know a single word from these languages and wouldn't even be able to identify the language from hearing it spoken.
I have to translate everything into English to understand but tests show that I know 13,000 words. I can’t read or converse after studying for 10 years and visiting Brasil 19 times. I’ve been practicing every day for 7 years with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese. I can’t understand her.
@@stevedavenport1202 Well, if you don't know any part of the language, there's no reason to use the language level system to begin with. "I'm at A0" means "I know some phrases and words, and vaguely the grammar." This stage is important to denote, bc it's the point where you can't say you know a language, but also you don't want it confused with knowing nothing at all
I've been studying English for 12 years and I'm still barely C1 which is so frustrating... I feel like the people in the language learning community often underestimate how long it takes to learn a language
Well, I certainly didn't learn English academically, but I do think that my level averages around C1. Although that might be a bit generous towards myself since I don't know a decent amount of really advanced English words of Latin origin. I think I might not know some important proverbs, euphemisms, and very subtle grammatical things, and the way I word my sentences sometimes gets me into misunderstandings, but tbh, that's an issue for me in every language I know, which includes my native tongue. But as far as most conversations go, I don't have any issues getting my point across. And if my conversationalist gets unsure about what I mean, I always try to clarify, if my brain doesn't just die on me, that is. Because recently, my cognitive capabilities are a bit in the gutter, so I might just straight up miss something in a conversation cuz I was thinking of something else, or can't think fast enough, or even think of a satisfying enough answer and so on. But yeah, I hope my sentences aren't too hard to understand cuz I am a bit of a scatterbrain.
@@danielantony1882 As a native speaker I can say with confidence if you can write something like this you're beyond the point of needing to care about your level
It doesn't help to talk about how long it takes to learn a language, because it makes you feel not good enough. If you have spent 40 hours a week learning English for 12 years, then C1 is not very good, but I guess you've studied at the most a few hours a week, and probably haven't spent much time in English-speaking countries (like the normal language learner), so you can be proud that you've achieved the level you have. In my experience, even learning a relatively easy language intensively, 32 weeks is incredibly fast to get to a C1 level, unless you also live in the country where the language is spoken. Even then, I'd say it's more like a year or two.
i met a friend from california online a few years ago. i've been learning english for 3/4 years back tben and he thought i was american until i told him otherwise. that's a real conifdence boost
I’m learning French, and I try to read everyday. I listen to an audiobook in French while reading along at the same time. It helps me avoid teaching myself incorrect pronunciation. I read one of your books this way - it was a lot of fun!
If you use audiobooks, my recommendation is to make a clear choice between standard French and the one from Quebec. There is nothing wrong about learning the latter one - especially if you plan to vsit Canada - but the pronunciation is very different and there are also some differences in the vocabulary. European forms of French (spoken mainly in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy) are extremely close to each other so the choice between them is not really important.
@@italixgaming915 Not sure I’d be able to tell the difference at my level. I suppose I could find out who the reader is and google them. Currently, I’m listening to Bonjour Tristesse read by Catherine Deneuve, the famous French actress. It’s too hard for me, but I can follow some of it.
@@theoldone3485 Anybody can differentiate the accent from Quebec from European accents. If you can't tell the difference with Catherine Deneuve's accent, then you probably only heard European accents so far.
@@italixgaming915 I think you're right in that I've only heard European accents so far. Today I had a lesson with a Canadian teacher and "est-ce que" sounded like "est-ce qul".
A very good explanation. I’m at B2 in Spanish, Catalan, French but only B1 in Italian and German. I can really feel the difference when trying to speak fluently.
It's easy when they're all related Romance languages and Indo-European. I'm at a B1 in Spanish, A2 in Georgian, and both C2 in Cebuano and English. Different language families.
I learned nearly to B2 in French via college and haven't used it in forever, but whenever we used to travel to Europe, I could read Le Monde just fine. Very very cool feeling
Having reached somewhere between B1/B2 and French, I stopped hearing, reading or speaking it, and while I can still understand something, I forgot too much to be able to hold a conversation at this point. Sometimes people also report having forgotten a lot in their native language if they moved to another country and stopped using it for years. Seems to be memory related, as mine was officially tested to be pretty bad, it would match.
Minored in French in college (graduated 1998). I can near fluently understand written French, understand spoken as long as it's an accent or dialect I've heard. So probably near B2. Speaking or writing, my grammar is probably B1.5 after not practicing for years.
The ultimate test is being able to understand whatever macron is saying, most natives probably wouldn't understand 100% of his speeches as he quasi constantly uses very innovative formulations. Knowing exactly what he's talking about will be fairly simple but actually understanding every single word would be a feat as he developed quite a flourished idiolect (Note that this only applies to his official speeches) If you're able to grasp every single word, congrats you reached French C3
This video is gold! Edit: I say this even when I have gone through this framework directly through the CEFR website, but your beispiel (examples) are real good!
I often say to students that many native English speakers would not pass a C2 exam. And only on Friday I was talking with the latina at the check out in one of my local supermarkets and she said "but I only have a B1 in English" to which my automatic response as a teacher was "pero B1 no es nada". Thanks for this video Olly I will be using it an the ideas for my future classes.
Hi there Olly! I'm Italian and, thanks to this video, I am now sure that I've reached C2 in both English and Spanish. I have lived in the US for a couple of years and I currently reside in Argentina. Based on my personal experience, listening to radios and watching shows or movies, is of great help while learning a foreign language. I'll definitely binge-watch all of your videos since I honestly believe they could be extremely helpful to further improve my skills. Thank you so much!
@@SenorDavid79 I only started this month since I've met an Italian couple here in Taiwan and they are so cool 😁 I'm much more focus on Learning Chinese Mandarin.Maybe you can help me Learning Italian 😅
Thanks for this video. I had gotten to about a B2 in Spanish, but haven't used it much in the last two years and am slipping back to B1. This helped me identify it and also give me a goal to get to a solid C1.
I started learning French two and a half years ago and have reached C2. Only just moved to France, but am constantly being taken for a native - studying language sciences in French without any issues. How? Spent a lot of time with a French girl, listened to French podcasts, watched French TV series, read French literature and spoke French any chance I got. Also studied the grammar a lot. It's a lot of hard work. But if you do it out of love, it breezes past instantly and is incredibly rewarding!
Fascinated by what you said about not forgetting languages you've reached B2 in. I have recently started re-learning my Czech. I studied Russian at university and did Czech as a second subject studying it for three years and spending three months in Brno on a language course as part of it. That was in the 1970s!!! I recently retired and decided I was embarrassed to say I'd done Czech as I'd forgotten it. So I found a really good course and started re-learning. I am actually stunned by how much I can remember. I remember all the grammar and a lot of vocabulary although it is very passive. So I find I am re-activating a language skill that had fallen asleep but not died. I had a similar experience with German recently when I was forced to use my German, a language I haven't studied for nearly thirty years, and found myself capable of saying things I had no idea I could say. On the other hand I also learned Serbo-Croat in later life up to a point where I was reading novels in it. I also lost touch with this language and now really struggle to remember any of it. So I am wondering if learning these languages when you are young is important too. Languages you learn later in life maybe don't stick in the memory as permanently.
I agree. I can still read and speak French, which I learned at school, but have forgotten almost all my Slovene, which I learned as an adult and at which I was C1 level, I would say, according to the video.
Love these deep dives. Thanks for sharing this info. I am very familiar with CEFR, but it's extremely useful to review these metrics during the day-to-day of learning.
Learning a new language is definitely one of the hardest things on earth. It took me 7 years to reach C2 level in English! but hands down, the best way to learn another language is to get someone who you can speak with on a daily basis. When I started dating my current gf(who only speaks english), my vocabulary expanded 2x faster than before. I went from C1 to C2 in a matter of 2 years or less.
I was tested C1 6 years ago. I learned English in school for 9 years, but that didnt really help me a lot, I am also not very talented at learning languages. But after I finnished school, I improved so much just by watching youtube. For me its a huge difference if you live in a foreign country where that language is spoken or if you just learn it in your home country. I lived in the United States for just 6 months and I think that I am close to C2 now. I can understand everything, I can speak about any topic without searching for words and I often think in English aswell. But since I learned most of it by watching videos and listening, I am a bit behind in writing. Honestly I would have never thought that I will reach this level at some point. Thanks youtube!
Thank you so much for adding examples Ollie. This is the first complete video that shows actual people at the different levels. Of course, it varies per person but this is really appreciated. I also like the fact you addressed the often brushed over fact that the different levels aren’t just judged by how well we speak or understand, but also reading and writing, which many language learners don’t speak about much (most focus on speaking and listening comprehension).😊
I used to speak my father's dialect when I was about 4 or 5 but had not spoken it for over 40 years. With the online resources that are available to us now, I can begin retraining myself to hopefully reach B2 level.
ive been learning english for a few years (8 in school to be exact) and am at the C1 level atm, and i really notice how understanding, speaking and stuff has become much, much easier. So much so, that it takes about as much effort to produce a sentence as in my native language, german. its also interesting how im a better writer than talker in both
That’s awesome! Your English is very good! English is my native language. I’m currently learning French. I plan on learning German next. My grandparents were from Bavaria. I wish you all the best!
I feel confident that I’m in the B1 catagory. My target language is Armenian and i’m currently in Armenia now, and the part about ‘clarity’ is absolutely spot on. Where I am, the native dialect is borderline indecipherable. But when spoken to slower, clearer, and in the ‘correct’ way, I get a heck of a lot more and can actually manage a conversation.
Very interesting video. As a native speaker of German and not a great student in learning foreign languages, I struggled with English for all my school years. Today I think I am between C1 and C2 when listening or reading English, but I don't have lots of possibilities to speak or write English. (And my grammar tends to be a bit too German). So I think I am between B2 and C1 when speaking or writing.
"as long as yer enjoying the journey; which IS the point remember..." Wise words, to be sure!! Far too many folks who make language learning videos on youtube just talk about wanting to do it "FAST!" which can be great, but it is pivitol to remember that this thing is supposed to be FUN!
I remember the first video I saw about you was about how you got fluent in Spanish. I watched that video like three times because my listening skills weren't very advanced in English, and I found it quite useful and fascinating once I understood it completely. Then I watched your videos cuz I wanted to practice my listening skills, and well, you were perfect to practice with as you speak kind of fast. At this point, I can even watch movies and even listen to the British radio, and I owe a lot of that to you. I currently find myself learning my third language (French) and I watch your videos every time I can only cuz I think this is amazing content. Thanks a lot, Olly. Greetings from Venezuela
Started learning English 2 years ago, my understanding of the language took off when I started to watch and read stuff in English, now I can understand pretty much everything
I'm native in Spanish and going by this a C2+ in English. Have been praised for my vocabulary and how I easily express myself. Some slip ups do occur. For example, it feels like I will always struggle with the proper use of "in, on, at" but through daily, almost every waking hour of the day exposure that seemed to get better too. I was playing cards and videogames in English exclusively by age 14 I believe and now that I'm 30 I claim to be fully bilingual.
I'm native in Polish and also somehwere around C2 in English, and I feel like messing up with "in, on, at" is very common with non-native speakers. I know a lot of people who can also speak English at this level and most of them (including me) mess up the proper usage of "in, on, at" And yeah I also learned english mostly from videogames, I'm 15 now and it is great knowing a second language
Doesn't help when british english speakers say "at the weekend" and americans say "on the weekend", along with countless other weird things.. differences most native speakers aren't aware of and are liable to mess up themselves. :)
OMG! Just now I realized that I passed the "pub-test" on my job interview. I'm brazilian and I've beeing working on a British company for the last 3 years. The first part of the interview was with the brazilian manager, all in english. Later at the same week he invited me to meet our UK manager and take some beers. I thought there would be a final formal interview but after the pub I was hired.
I'm A2 - B1 in English. I use English for 20 years, and I can somewhat write about anything, with mistakes of course, because I never learned grammar intentionally. I can read fast, I understand pretty much everything. I like to read Harry Potter fanfictions, some of them are several hundreds of thousands words long. I browse English websites daily, only to gather information about anything. I understand every word you said in this video. On the other way I am unable to speak fluently, I speak slowly, sometimes I am stuck and I don't know what to say. I use spoken English very little. Everything I learned is in my head, because I wanted to know that, not because someone wanted me to learn that. I can probably reach C1 level pretty fast, only if I had opportunity to speak with someone daily. It's irrelevant about what are you talking, I would probably understand you, but my response would suck.
I also had no one to speak to for 10 years, but I did somewhat overcome the difficulty with speaking/writing by writing on social media (reddit usually) and.. speaking to myself out load lol Over the years I've studied a lot of technical and academic subjects on my own so there's a lot to think about and process, I just do the thinking part out load. A lot of my studying is done by listening to TH-cam/udemy/etc video courses, so I'm constantly hearing people talk, and thinking out load means I essentially engage in conversation (albeit one sided) about the subject and I have to speak clearly and finish my thoughts, this forces me to practice. I'm not sure what level I'm at right now, but a test I did last year gave me B2. I feel like I'm somewhere between B2 and C1.
Well, instead of speaking to someone if you don’t have anybody to practice your language, so try to think in English as if it is your native language. Or try even to speak English to yourself when you are alone and nobody can see you. My native language is theoretically German as my mother was German. She never spoke German to me and my sister and I was born and grew up in Macedonia former Yugoslavia, so I learned German in Switzerland, where I live over 3 decades. I had English at school in Macedonia and I also had Englisch lessons here, but it was only a repetition for me and I am watching a lot of TH-cam videos and I’m also reading not only articles but also books in English as I don’t have so much opportunities to speak English with other people. I have some friends who are from United Kingdom, but unfortunately I don’t see them very often. Maybe I should start going again to the English speaking club where people meet and where I can speak English and we spend some time together or organise various activities. And I also never mind to be corrected when I make mistakes, I even encourage people to do so, as I tell them how motivated I am to learn the language as perfectly as possible. So you can also try to find a German speaking club if there is one in your near environment. Although German is not really very popular. When I came to Switzerland, I spoke English to the people here, at least to the young people who learned English, but not everybody could speak it, so it took me some years to learn German at the C2 level I can read every book in every field. I can express myself almost as a native speaker. And I can speak very fast and fluently. I also speak serbo-croatian as both languages are Slavic languages and comparable to Portuguese and Spanish for example. And I understand 85% of Bulgarian language, but I don’t speak it and whenever I speak to the people from Bulgaria living in Switzerland in Macedonian language, they understand me and I do understand them except some expressions which they can explain to me, or I can understand these terms from the context without asking.
No chance you are A2 and you can write and understand that much. Give yourself more credit :) You probably just need more practice speaking which is fine
I'm trilingual (Arabic (native), English and German). I tried testing my language levels online a few days ago. Now, I know that the tests online may not always be very accurate, so I am aware that I should take the test results with a grain of salt. I tested C1 in both German and English, however, I received B2 in Arabic, despite it being my native language. I speak Arabic in a dialect (I'm new to your channel, but given the fact that you have studied 10 languages, I'll assume that you're aware of Arabs speaking different dialects) and since I do not live in an Arab country, I seem to have some difficulties with Arabic grammar, writing and reading. I can both read and write in Arabic, just slower than Latin script. I'm honestly kind of feeling like a failure, but I guess that it's a sign that I really should start incorperating the Arabic language, especially reading and writing, more in my day-to-day life.
Also it’s important to remember the test is standardized and does not take into account dialects. I would say I speak very good albanian. However, I only speak in my dialect of Albanian because I’ve never been taught or had a need to learn standardized Albanian. Reading I can do that But writing I will only do the bare minimum because it’s difficult. Either way, my point is, your Arabic will always be your best language and the dialects make a huge difference.
Same here with my native language Hindi. I am actually able to think more complex thoughts in English and that drives me to improve my Hindi. When I say to myself I'll only think in Hindi today, I find myself in various situations where I'd like to convey some concept to myself that Hindi just doesn't have the word for or I do not know the word for it. It also makes me realize how different languages convey the same thing in different ways.
@@yamdagni Oh dude i deal with that too! My native language is German, i live in Germany, yet my thinking is 70% in english. I default to english entertainment in my freetime, my friends and i randomly switch languages because neither of us cares which one we use, and we do get stuck in exclusively english a lot. I catch myself struggling to phrase casual conversation in German only. It's honestly kind of bizarre that i take longer to articulate quick thoughts or comments in my native language. I notice it a lot when I'm with my parents and grandparents, who don't speak any english so i can't randomly lapse into english phrases or stick words into my German sentence. Also when I have to have German discussions in university classes and the other students aren't enrolled in English and german studies, it's weirdly difficult to purge all english from my conversation.
Don’t be too harsh on yourself. The Arabic you learn is فحصة and in my experience very different than the dialects spoken, so it’s normal to not be advanced in it. Especially if you don’t/didn’t study it in school.
I think it's very much a thing of children of immigrants that they lag behind with writing and reading. I have very little issue with listening to conversation but I'm reading and writing like a child in second class.
Super useful video. Thanks, man! In the demos, I also noticed that the speaker at B2 sounded most like the foreign students that I went to school with. I looked it up and discovered that B2 was the typical level universities required to study there, so it makes sense. Also, looking back on it. The only immigrants that I know who speak at a C2 level have lived in the country for decades and went to university here. It seems kind of absurd that I had as my MINIMUM goal C2 in 5 or 6 languages. B2 would be AWESOME.
This is the clearest explanation with examples of the levels I have found. I love to see examples of each level and which activities are common for each level. Thank you!!
I have been studying Portuguese for a year and a half and I have a course certificate stating C2. Though I do not feel I am even close to native level, I can write down quite sophisticated stuff with the help of Ms. Office corrector and the fact I am a native Spanish speaker. Portuguese is a weird language to learn for a Spanish speaker!
Os dois idiomas são tão próximos que as diferenças são quase mínimas às vezes, aprender espanhol apartir do português ou vice-versa é mais uma questão de aprender as diferenças do que realmente aprender um idioma totalmente novo. Eu diria que é quase o mesmo se fores aprender italiano, devido ao facto de estes idiomas serem todos descendentes do mesmo idioma e de partilhar muito do seu vocabulário, gramática, etc. Às vezes mesmo que não saibas o equivalente no outro idioma vais perceber o que está a ser dito. Se fores tentar um outro idioma europeu ou até um asiático ias demorar bem mais a aprender.
Es algo especial aprender una otra lengua latina cuando tu lengua materna es una. Soy Francés, y puedo leer español (pues, le aprendi en la escuela), y italiano, catalan, portugues también (pero no puedo hablarlos para nada). Estudiando seriamente, pienso que es posible tener un muy buen nivel con casi cualquiera de ellas - quizá el francés o el rumano sean más dificil. Pero también me parece facil de mezclar las lenguas con tuya o con otra lengua latina que aprendiste. Disculpame para los acentos faltantes, olvido donde tengo que ponerlos y mi teclado no puede escribir algunos ^^'
I'm so glad to have come across this video. I'm a native English speaker, but I'm learning Spanish. Very much still a beginner. It's really hard to find books in Spanish. Not even the library has books I can borrow. Definitely going to be buying some of your books for practice! Thanks for making them!
This was the best explanation of the different levels I've seen. The videos of people speaking at different levels was very helpful! With the pub test can your level get better as the evening progresses?
@@londongael414 Alcohol loosens inhibitions. Back in the day when I was struggling with Spanish, imbibing while watching Spanish-language TV with Hispanic friends really helped my progress. Of course, I would not recommend this "method" to someone struggling with alcohol addiction.
This explanation makes me more confident that I am B1 in Japanese now. But it's interesting because one of my best friends is Thai, and I think her English level is also B1 (and she confirmed that based on her knowledge, too), but her English is easily higher than my Japanese. So it's like, within B1 I feel there is a pretty wide range, where you could have two people who are both B1 but one is clearer a "higher" B1 than the other. Probably that is true of every level.
In Europe, the courses are usually seperated into parts. You could say that those are steps within these levels, and reaching the end means you mastered that level and are ready to move up. A1 and A2 usually having 2 parts, B1 having 4 (depending on the amount of hours, those numbers can double). For B2 and above, there are usually no general courses for it, but rather the skills are treated seperately, conversation courses, grammar courses, cooking courses, business/technical/whatever topic a course could be.
i have been learning english for a whole year with duolingo and i want to say that it is so hard for me i am ukrainian trying to make videos in english
@@frederickpeebles8142 Yes it does, although at the higher levels I've heard it gets quite nit-picky about grammar, some of the tested vocab is different from what's actually common in real life, and it's mostly/entirely multiple choice, I believe. As a result, there are some people who are fluent in Japanese but would not pass the highest levels of the test (N1), and likewise there are people who can pass N1 but are not super comfortable/natural in real world conversations. So I haven't been basing my studying around the tests much, although it does provide one concrete way to structure your learning.
Thanks for this awesome video! I'm about B1/B2 in Spanish. It is encouraging me to hear about getting to a bit of a higher level. I'm not 100% confident I'd pass the pub test so I have to keep pushing. 🙂
Olly Richards has provided an easily-understandable explanation of the six levels of language ability! *Double your time to acquire languages more distant from your first language. *Each level takes about twice as long as the previous level to reach (plateau feeling after initial, quick progress.) *Each level means that level in all of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Enjoy the journey, which is the point! A1 Beginner 500-700 words Slow, greet people, breaks Present-tense Write a postcard. Time to reach: 2 months, or 1 month intensive. A2: Elementary 1,500 words Smoother, small talk. Grope for words. Understand clear, direct speech. Tenses - present + past and future! Write a letter. *Can begin to read (easy readers!). Time total: 3 months, intensive. B1: Intermediate 2,500 words Confident explain, opine, everyday problem-solving, explain things well. NOT bilingual yet. Write one page. *Can watch movies (with subtitles). Time total: 7 months (intensive). B2: Upper-Intermediate 4,000 words Strangers in a noisy environment okay, arguments, vocal fillers. Correct own mistakes. *Natural conversation. Write anything. 15 months (intensive) Fluent, but not more here, as it’s not a concept with a generally agreed upon, common definition. **Once learned to B2 Upper-Intermediate level, will know this language you whole life! C1: Advanced 8,000 words Almost effortless understanding, flexible, fast, paraphrase, grammar natural. **Read complex topics. Write well. *Understand (and make!) jokes. 31 months, about 2.6 years, intensive. C2: Mastery 16,000 words **Understand complex and technical things you read. Control, know exact words to convey exact, complicated meaning, feels completely natural. **Educated, intellectual-sounding to a native listener. *Sustain a serious discussion/argument. (But sound like a non-native speaker.) (Uneducated, native speakers will not test at this Mastery level.) 63 months, about 5.25 years, intensive. *Watch movies without subtitles! *Read pretty much any book! Close to native (maybe accent, occasionally choice of word). *Serious achievement!
knowing that i was between a1 and a2 for welsh makes me feel so good, i thought i was just a failure bcuz i wasnt learning fast enough but i knew more than i thought i did
Took me 2 and a half years or so to reach a solid C1 level. I'm honestly comfortable at this level, but am reaching for a C2, and I think learning at this point is more passive and has more to do with more exposure to the language than anything. I still have questions, but I find those are questions that natives also have, at times. Like the difference between dentro and adentro, which I found out recently is regional, not actually grammatical (though I had been using them interchangeably without even really thinking about it, anyhow).
I'm A2 when it comes to Japanese and A1 in ASL, French, and Finnish. I'm at C2 in English, which strangely enough is something a lot of my contemporaries can't say. I fully agree with understanding jokes and wordplay being a benchmark for fluency. You're either fluent by that point, or you only know the punchlines and little else. I would agree with turning off the subtitles as well, if it wasn't for a saying I came up with a while back: "Decades of language learning means nothing against a person who mumbles."
I tend to have a lot of problems with mumbling and very heavy accents as well, but even in my native language (Dutch) this remains a problem. Some people just can't speak properly...
Feeling accepted as one of the group, among native speakers, it is indeed one of the best feelings ever. I went through so much but now it feels more natural speaking my second language than the first one.
Wow! I didn't look at your channel name before I started this video, I just stumbled upon it looking into the levels. But I've started to learn Italian and am still sub A1 but stumbled across one of your Short Story books a few weeks ago and have been making an effort to get through it! When you brought that exact book up it blew my mind that you're the guy who wrote the book I was reading earlier today.
I've been taking French classes for over 2 years now and I can confidently say that I am at a B1 level. I'm hoping to get to B2 in a year or so. Using the calculations mentioned at the end, A1 2.75 months , A2 8.25 months (adding the two), B1 16.5 months (I reached B2 sometime last year), and B2 33 months. Right now I'm at 22.5 months (10 months spent learning per year), so it should take about another year, which sounds about right according to my teacher's predictions.
omg i read one of your books years ago and i had no idea that you wrote it until i watched this video and put 2 and 2 together. your books are amazing! the french beginner short stories book helped my reading improve quite a lot. thanks again!! 😊
I really liked the pub example of B2 in being able to have a conversation for a while without all the strain and battle to understand and share your thoughts. I think I'm getting closer to B2 Japanese but wouldn't claim it yet as I feel like I'm doing mental gymnastics when it comes to formality/keigo etc and just using the right verbs to describe situations. I also really like the x2 graph stepper per level! That really put things into perspective for me actually. It feels like a plateau when you get to intermediate in any new language but then picking up another is so easy in the beginning stages, now it makes sense 🤣 Now I feel like I'm not slacking but just on the longer hill now, thank you for this content!
Omg thank you so much for that month breakdown at the end. I flew through A1 for French in less than a month (mostly due to my intermediate level of Spanish and the similarities), but now I’m about to take the A2 test and just don’t feel 100% ready. It’s been one month. I’m not working right now so can devote more time, but also have a three year old sooo, yea…anyway I have your stories books for French, beginner and intermediate, so let me go start reading lol Sb: I thought this might be a clickbait type of video and it’s definitely not! Very good breakdown ! (And the comments underneath have been helpful too so thx guys)
I've been working on Spanish fluency for about 6 months now. The problem is, it's difficult for me to dedicate a substantial amount of time to it daily. I've decided to work on this more in 2024 and aim to really excel by this time next year. I'm going to try more immersion, as well, and studying verbs daily. Repetition is important for me for sure. I work in medical and we have quite a lot of spanish speaking families. My ultimate goal is to be able to fully communicate without the need for translation services
My language level in Spanish is kaleidoscopic -- it changes every time I look at it. I would like more information about how verb tenses and moods, including simple and compound, and which selection of essential verbs, fits into a self-assessment of language abilities.
I passed a C1 exam in French in the 80% range a few years ago but since I haven’t really used the language since and I have no interest in France or French culture I feel like I’m back at an A2/B1 level. With English I think I passed the C1 level at around age 15. I’ve been exposed to the language since age 4 through television, but only started studying it formally at age 10. For 15 years now I used English more than my native tongue even though I never moved abroad. Just started learning German at thirty.
You'll probably find that if you did take up french again it'll come back really fast. Happened to me. I felt like I forgot everything and was back at a very low level but it came back really quickly
usually you'll forget some grammar and even some words. But you won't forget the language in general. And as Stueckchen said, if you ever use French as main language in daily basis, I guess you'd get at C1 or higher very very fast.
One of the best explanations I’ve heard or seen of the levels! I tested B1 in German a few years ago and started B2 classes but have very much felt like I have plateaued. I had to stop the classes but I live in Germany and have been forcing myself more and more out of my comfort zone to speak much more and now o do feel like I’m in a limbo of B2 and B1 still. Your explanations of the levels definitely resonated with how I’ve felt at each level and made me feel confident about what to expect as I „level up“ more. Great video! Enjoy them all!
Almost a completely c1 English speaker 🎉🎉🎉 things its starting to get interesting now, its getting pretty much easier to larn new words and also learn about culture.
I've been learning Japanese on the side for a little over two years now (~10 minutes every day), and from this video I'd still be a A1. Granted this is because the grammar and more importantly, the writing requires more memorization than just remembering the word, but I think the main thing holding me back is that I don't have a conversation partner. I bet if I had someone to talk to on a weekly basis I'd shoot up to B1 in a heartbeat.
Yep,Olly speaks pretty fast and as a native he is on C2 level obviously haha what if I understand everything he said am I on C2 too? Thank you very much I didn't expect that
I love that you show us the different levels in English, which is probably the language most of us are fluent in as a demonstration of what we might sound like to others. It really helps me grok what is being said.
I got to somewhere between A2 and B1 in french almost 15 years ago. I'm planning a big trip to France next year so I'm doing some duolingo lessons on it and it surprised me how much of my very limited vocabulary is still there somewhere at the back of my mind. Guessing I'm somewhere between A1 and A2 now. I'm a native Icelandic speaker (not a lot of us around) and English is the only other language where I might pass at a native speaker, you might just think I'm from a different English speaking country. My Danish and my Spanish are at around A1, very limited but I can catch a few words if I hear a conversation and can manage some very basic interactions with a bit of help from my hands.
Good to know the technical level of my French ability. Proud to be a C1 from Texas. French people are usually shocked to hear an American speak French at my level.
As someone who managed to get C1 in English (CAE), German (TestDaf) and Spanish (DELE) I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video! Although many people find these language tests dull (which is true to a certain degree) there are not so many ways to evaluate someone else's claims to be "B2 in French" or "C1 in Spanish". However I like "the Pub test" that seems wonderful to me ;)
Great video. Interesting point also on the topic of getting to a certain level in speaking but a different one in writing for example. As for me, I know that I have a higher level in Italian in reading (I try to read Italian on a regular basis) than in speaking (as I have very little opportunity to speak the language). And this of course is very true for all people who have studied Latin or Ancient Greek !
Yes, the grammar / translation approach. In recent years I've seen learners of Latin and Ancient Greek being encouraged to speak (eg, Luke Ranieri or Scorpio Martianus / polymathy; also, deka glossai), and Assimil has courses with audio in both languages. They even have a course for Sanskrit and one for Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Ohhh I must be B2 Spanish then, a la the pub test. I lived in Costa Rica for 6 months this year and I was able to befriend all of the bar staff at the local hotel, and none of them spoke English. I was a really great feeling to be able to make friends in a different language. I definitely have a lot more words to learn before i can be completely confident though
6:55 Bruh you just made me feel good about being B1 in Japanese to dropping the bomb that I'm technically still A1 because I can't physically write 90% of the kanji I know. Unless just typing counts, then I'm still good
It totally counts lmao. People who actually know how to read and write in such languages will instantly be able to tell that your stroke order is all over the place, the radicals are disjunct and strokes are sometimes drawn in the wrong direction. Learning the stroke order and the radicals is the first thing I always do when picking up a new kanji. Sure, I may know less kanji in total and learn them slower, but I'll be less likely to forget them and will actually be able to read and write on paper. Also, it's a serious flex to write difficult-looking but actually easy kanji. I like to show off with 讐, 魔 and 難 especially.
I started learning Spanish on Duolingo last year, Being well past retiremen, it's slow going, but I still think I'm a high A1 or a low A2. Occasionally, I can read an article in the Spanish section of the Times. In the seveties, I taught English conversation in Japan. I would consider myself a high B1 or a low B2 (if it weren't for the writing system).
@@davevanfunk8917 I use Duolingo, but I don't place a high importance on it. While it's good for acquiring new general vocabulary ("Yo odio el búho verde, jaja!") and practicing translation and sentence structures, I mostly use Assimil with spaced repetition.
Two observations: Very few people who learn another language reach C2 level. Second observation...This is probably the best explaination of what each level is really like. Well done.
I would argue that the only languages where it’s possible to reach C2 is English because it’s the international language, so there’s so much exposure to be had, or the language of the country you live in (as a foreigner). And it goes without saying that this progress won’t even come naturally, you still have to make a lot of effort. There’s no way that anyone can reach C2 otherwise.
I'm a spaniard who's been learning English all her life, I can't say that I'm exceptional at it though because I don't even hace a C1 certificate, although everyone tells me I'm a C1 at least (I don't think so) I still struggle with C1 listenings and don't turn off subtitles in half of the stuff I watch on Netflix, although I do watch TH-cam without them and I do just fine. Honestly I'm not really confident on my own skills.
Pal, I wouldn't use subtitles as part of your inbuilt test. Most of my family use subtitles about 50% of the time, in English, our native language. We don't have hearing loss, there's just a lot of things going on at once. I do think that they just don't balance dialogue with background audio like they used to. It's so frustrating!
@@orangew3988 mmm thank you, it's sort of relieving to know that even natives use them every once in a while! I really do want to get better at C1 listening extracts tho, that's why I'm trying to use them less
This was so helpful! I am I currently learning Brazilian Portuguese (and previously studied French and German). I totally agree with the B2 level which is where I was in French and I still remember so much! I also teach English as a Second Language and the examples of students speaking at each level were invaluable. I plan to share with my students when they ask "how do I speak like a native speaker?" Thanks!
It is great you covered what is suppose to be C.E.F.R. I was surprised you did not mention anything about how it helps for peoples CV and resume for their careers. Also surprising you did not mention, a B2 level is the common standard for students to attain to allow them to study in post secondary school
Your voice is calming to listen to!! I got my B1 certificate 2 years ago. I am using the language for quite a long time now. However, my speaking skills are not there yet. Same with reading. I have just read one book in my life. I just hate reading with a passion. Nevertheless, I need to practice those too!! The main reason for speaking is, I don't know who to speak to. I talk in Farsi at home and talk Dutch in my everyday life. My apologies for my grammar and interpunction. lmao
I found this video to be very informative. CEFR levels seem to be confusing for people who didn't learn new language in last 20 years. From my own experience I can attest that reading can really boost language proficiency, as proven by a sudden raise in my English grades Last time I was tested, results showed between B2 and C1 and I am quite certain I would not reach that level without books Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series, with "Colour of Magic" being the first book in English I have ever read. I still have trouble understanding some of my coworkers though. On the other hand, I sometimes catch mistakes natives make.
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These definitions of levels are a bit weird to me, cause we are individuals with individual approaches to the language. Me for example, in some fields e.g. at the topic cooking or at pub conversations I am A2 or barely B1 or at reading and writing I am maybe B1 but in other parts I am C1 for sure.
Especially the "pub test" is weird to me, as in pubs people say so many special expressions you only know when you grew up in this country, so many phrases, sayings, abbreviations, weird "half- sentences" you JUST SAY (depending of age and social group), in pubs they say so many jokes you never can understand just by the words, and people talk there very fast and swallow letters and word, I would say without C1... C2 you can't really follow fully a pub talk. (Unless a pub talk is like a boring smalltalk like a smalltalk somewhere else). I have also zero vocabulary in business English or political terms or sports, as I have no connetcion to these topics.
I had a very long phase of 3 years of serious frustration cause I just didn't get better despite daily talks to a Briitsh friend. Suddenly this phase vanished and my brain pics up here and there new stuff - for ever, and when I am uncertain about something and when I guess then , 95% of my guesses are right when I look it up in dictionary.
My level should be called F1: having really Fun at talking the language and despite mistakes and big gaps but I WANT to get better, no matter at what speed.
Thank you for posting this video. I’ve been trying to learn French on you tube and don’t have an opportunity for an immersion opportunity.
Can you suggest a basic strategy for memorizing languages for example,
Nouns, verbs, present and past tense etc.
I’m learning a lot from your videos.
Do you have books for A1 level, for absolute beginners?
@@mattesrocket CEFR levels are standard now. If you sign up for any language learning program they use these levels. It's a way that language learning has been standardized, especially if you are taking any tests for certifications. If you're just learning for fun, then these levels won't matter. But if you need a certification for university or a job, then it is important to know them.
@@mattesrocket 我们
I don't know about other languages, but for German it's like:
- A1: You can go to the supermarkets without problems (at least before the cashier asks: Sammelst du Payback Punkte?).
- A2: You can go to almost anywhere by yourself just fine, if the trains don't come late and change platforms, like 95% of the time.
- B1: You can hold simple conversations with the locals.
- B2: You can hold normal conversations with the locals who are not Bavarians, Austrians, or Swiss Germans.
- C1: You'll have no problem leading a normal life here, I guess...
- C2: You can understand German jokes now, which are non-existent. So C2 is useless.
Holy crap this is so accurate lol. But the cashier would as “Sammeln Sie Payback-Punkte?” Unfortunately we still use the formal Sie
Jo Deutsche Witze sind halt so voll mit Sarkasmus und Ironie da brauchst du halt schon so D1 für 😅
And even if there was a E1 or E2... it wouldn't be enough to understand or speak swabian
"if the trains don't come late and change platforms" - so you can't go anywhere...
C2 would probably be understanding sarcasm and irony at least most of the time, which is a test I'd fail despite being native German speaker but I can blame it on the autism
Funny as heck.
The pub test is a legit good way to see if you're b2.
I've been learning French for a few years and I met some French people at a club and we spoke for hours and hours, I understood everything and I said everything I wanted to, they never were confused or adapted to me.
This was the first time I was able to call myself fluent without feeling cringe about it.
This was definitely one of the greatest highs/feelings I've ever had, I fit in and was respected for the work I put in and felt part of the culture and language I once simply couldn't understand.
That's awesome man nice one
That's a big win 💯
Have you taken TEF or any French proficiency test? What level would you say you're?
Moi j'apprends également le français
Nice Alice Ayel channel is best and cheapest learning materials.
Well, then I haven't reach B2 level even in my native language
I suppose it's a shitty test, endure several hours in a noisy pub, while participating in a conversation, I'm unable to do it in any language
@@moranag209 don't be difficult.
Every club has smoking areas and tables where the music isn't as loud.
Don't drink too much either.
I've been learning German on and off for something over a year, and I feel like I'm at a higher level for reading and writing vs speaking and listening. I've always been intimidated by listening comprehension and coming up with responses to potential conversation. I'm just now realizing that when it comes to fully immersing yourself in learning a language that there are going to be times when you'll have to step out of your comfort zone. I've started to branch out and watch videos of German speakers with subtitles, and I even think to myself in German sometimes! It's a rough ride, but I just have to keep reminding myself that with enough practice I'll begin to see major improvements in my conversational abilities :)
I've been learning German on and off for so many years but I end up just stopping after a while. I'm starting over again because I've pretty much forgotten everything. I hate myself because I'm just a massive procrastinator/don't help myself. I've always loved languages but I end up getting pissed off with myself because I feel like I'm not making progress.
Das deutsche Sprache ist scheiße das Grammatik ist grauenhaft bei dir muss was falsch gelaufen sein damit du deutsch freiwillig gelernt hat du arme 😂😂😂
@@malcox5218 Von meinem Erlebnis stimmt das gar nicht. Obwohl es ja zunächst schwer ist, die deutsche Grammatik zu begreifen, hat es mir viel Spaß gemacht, sie zu verbessern! Tut mir aber leid, dass du dich so fühlst, aber wir alle haben unsere eigene Meinung, schätze ich... 🤷
@@thesupperdud4432 hdf
It is okay to have an unbalance in your levels. Probably everybody does. Even native speakers. Some of us would rather give a speech and some would send a strongly worded letter. lol
Good luck on your German, though.
The A2 can tell you they went to the bar.
The B2 can talk to you at the bar.
The C2 can help you study for the bar.
C3 is when you recognize what the third "bar" means
@@Eeeeerisssss
What is the third bar? I Can only notice two in the original comment
@@theparadigm8149 the bar exam is what you have to take to become a lawyer
@@MissSimsalot
Oh, that’s right! 👍 Don’t know how I missed that…
With C4 , I can.... Communicate with everyone ( even non English speaker😊)
English - C1/C2 (I hold a certificate C1)
Dutch - C2 (Mother language)
German - B2/C1 (I hold a certificate in B2, although 1.5 years ago)
Spanish - A2
Russian - A1
oh no, putin is going to invade your country to defend you, because you are a russian-speaker and thus you are oppressed by your country 😨
Kinda similar to me
English: C2(Second language)
German: C1
Igbo: b2 probably (It's my native language)
French: A2-B1
Swiss German: b2( I'm not sure)
I want to learn more languages tho
I've been learning English by myself for three years, and for a long time I felt stucked in intermediate level, I couldn't make any progress about grammar and vocabulary. Then I just relaxed about it and exposed myself to conversations with native speakers and this worked so well. Some friends noticed my improvement and they mentioned I sound much more smother.
" I still don't know my English level but I feel totally comfortable speaking" 😊
Keep it up
Pra cima !!!
@@rodrigoramos4071 é nós!
@@karlajoycefonseca4616 sei que não tava pedindo correções mas naquilo que escreveu só tem dois erros pequenos: stucked > stuck, e smother > smoother. Do resto eu diria que parece nativa. Tá de parabéns. Fonte: sou estadunidense.
@@tupisamba211 muito obrigada!
Nunca me incomodei com correções, foi isso que me ajudou a evoluir no inglês. 😊 Your Portuguese is really good btw.
I honestly think Ollie is the best language teacher on TH-cam. Something about his presence shows an honesty that’s hard to find on the platform.
Keep it up Ollie . I bought the Russian story books at my local book store .
Agreed 100%.
Also the only one I’ve come across that actually has a degree in language education
I already knew Spanish at a C1 level, but in the past 8 months I went from nothing to B2 in Portuguese. I'm so proud!!!
Nice work. Will Italian be the next language for you?
Nice I also already know Spanish and in the past 3 to 4 months I'm already at a B1-B2 level and I'm really excited to improve
Be welcome to visit my country, Brazil...
@@jonatasmendonca2079 eu aprendi português só porque eu quero viajar ao Brazil, a sua cultura é muito interessante
@@itsyaboyjay9862 Obrigado por dizer isto!! I'm very happy for you!!
I like that you add that many natives would not test at C2. The truth is that a lot of the skills and vocabulary that are necessary for C2 are not neccessary in daily life, so if a person is not particularly academic or involved in certain fields, they just never use those skills. C2 requires being able to comment on topics like politics and medicine and technology and many people have not done that since A Level General studies class (or equivalent). Honestly, people take C2 as the Holy Grail. C2 is amazing and is to be celebrated, but you are fine without it on most days. As an example, I live and work in Japan. I have been here for almost 15 years, but I have never formally studied Japanese. I would test around B2 or C1, I think, but I haven't taken a Japanese test since I got my N2 a decade ago. However, every day I answer the work phones in Japanese. I read and prepare documents in Japanese. I attend meetings in Japanese. I watch movies on the big screen in Japanese. My French, on the other hand, is C2 and my university major. It is better grammatically than my Japanese for sure, but there are tons of things that I would not be confident in doing in French. Ask me to write an argumentative essay on women's reproductive rights though? I will give you a magazine-quality piece.
Things I would add... These levels really are just a guideline and not set in stone. While A1 learners are very similar, when you look at B1 and up, there are a whole range of profiles. One person will write more elegantly than they speak. Another understands everything they read or hear, but has less spoken vocabulary. And it is important not to confuse spoken fluency with actual language level. I did duolingo, textbook and 5 months of tv before my first attempt at having a conversation in (Taiwanese) Mandarin. By conversation 3, I was speaking fluently (i.e. I didn't have to really pause and search for for words), but I was still a low A2.
Also, the peripheral abilities are greatly influenced by how much experience you have with language as a whole, not necessarily just with the language you are learning now. I teach in a Japanese high school and if my students can't remember a word, they just freeze. Meanwhile, in my very first Mandarin conversation, I was trying to talk about the pandemic and obviously, I do not know pandemic words in Chinese. But I said something like, "Many people sick now. We can not travel," and my tutor immediately figured out what I wanted to say and taught me the words. This paraphrasing is something you mention for the B levels, but it helps that Mandarin is the 13th language I studied. (I do not actually speak them all. Hahaha. Nopes.) The skills that I had picked up from previously asking for words in so many other languages, and maybe even my skill at English (I used to be really good at English, even compared to native speakers, before I moved to Japan and Japan ate my English) really makes it intuitive to find ways to explain the most difficult of concepts in words that 3 year olds use. To add to that, I started watching unsubtitled TV at A2, because my tutor gave me a show to watch on TH-cam. It tricked me because episode 1 had English subs and the others didn't. I figured I had already started, I might as well continue. Now, if a show has subs, I use them; if it doesn't, meh, still watching. This only seems to apply to Taiwanese Mandarin, though. I do not watch shows from mainland China without subs. I do not watch any of my other A1 or A2 languages without subs. The other languages I watch with no subs are French (C2), Spanish (C2), Italian (B2) and Portuguese (because it sounds like Spanish) and Japanese (because I live here), so it really is hard to say why that skill carried over only to Taiwanese shows. Was it just because I happened to watch that first show because I had already started it???
I feel like C2 does really place you in linguistics instead, something that most people won't care about in their native language.
@@Kkubey Good point. This is exactly why I do not have JLPT 1. My native speaker friends looked at the questions and were like, "I have never used half of these expressions in my life!"
There are, according to well respected dictionaries, between 340,000 and 600,000 words in the English language, and Olly's estimate on the number of words required for C2 is about 16,000. Based on these numbers even a C2 speaker knows only about 2.5% to 5% of all the English words. The vast majority of unknown words would be words that are only used within certain fields. Some fields have a pretty high number of words that are unique to that specific field, while others only have a few. You don't need to know all these words in order to be C2, e.g. you don't need to know every single term used within woodworking (joinery, carpentry, jumberjacking etc.) in order to be C2. And no matter how fluent you are in English, there will always be certain things that you have never even heard of.
i have been learning english for a whole year with duolingo and i want to say that it is so hard for me i am ukrainian trying to make videos in english
"By conversation 3, I was speaking fluently (i.e. I didn't have to really pause and search for words), but I was still a low A2."
I think you are confusing fluently and fluidly. You are never going to be fluent on A2. On B2 you are at times fluent, but not all the time. On C1 you are fluent most of the time. C2 as you said, is like an undergrad degree, so not needed for most of the regular interactions. It does come naturally over time if you are immersed in that language.
I agree with you on the not forgetting a language once you make it to a solid B2. I studied tons of German in my 20’s and then stopped using it completely afterwards and at 45 it’s just a little rusty. I understand everything fine and I can still talk if needed. Ignoring it for over 15 years. This blows my mind.
Good for you. I've lost most of the vocabulary I had learned in German. It would be hard to evaluate my level today because the surviving words are random, words like Verkehrsampel or Zebrastreiffen have survived while the only animals I can remember are Katze and Hund...
See, I was a B1-2 in Spanish…I was going to school so I could teach it. Now…I’m like back at a1 speaking (my own sentences- I can read aloud fine), im pretty good at reading it, and I can pick up things if I overhear my coworkers speaking it. And my coworkers will practice with me too, which is very cool of them. I used to work in a prison and a few of my Spanish speaking inmates would insist on speaking Spanish with me unless it was an emergency. But it’s a struggle to keep up a convo. I feel like an episode of Dora the Explorer.
Even despite the fact that I fully understood this video I still hesitate that I reached B2/C1 level :) Why is that?
I really enjoy English thanks to your videos, Olly. Thank you!
My great memory of speaking French was a lady from Switzerland who was admitted to the AED where I was Nursing and being able to communicate with her. It was such a good feeling to be able to give her that extra comfort.
Thanks for clarifying what each level of fluency means. I haven't been keeping up with my Italian studies for the last 4 years. I believe I was at a B2 level. I just started speaking again to brush up on my skills and I can't believe how much I remember. Sometimes words come to me that I forgot I knew. Sure, the fluidity of my speech isn't what it was, but it will come back in time. I agree once you reach B2 level you will not forget what you have learned.
So you believe that you _were_ at a B2 level?
You deserve C1 based on your comment alone. :')
A few milestones for me, when learning Spanish, were..
1) Understanding voices over a PA system or in the midst of a lot of background noise.
2) Understanding “yawn-speech” (as I call it, and a bit of wordplay with “yon-speech”) or in other words, still comprehending someone when their speech trails off or is otherwise muffled or interrupted by a yawn, a hiccup, or a slightly ill-timed bite of food, or in any other way that native speakers would presume to be negligible.
3) Understanding unfamiliar accents within a target language. For example, when I first heard a woman in Buenos Aires speak Spanish with a Japanese accent, it really threw me, as I speak NO Japanese, but within a few minutes of conversation I was secretly delighted to realize my brain was able to cut right through both her accent and her occasional grammatical errors.
4) Thinking and even dreaming in a target language. How thrilling it was every time I caught my mind simply bypassing English in order to complete my thoughts directly in Spanish! One caveat: Although I consider myself fluent in several languages besides my native English, to this day I still have to perform any and all mathematics in my head in English.
5) Lastly, on one memorable occasion, I was having a conversation in Spanish with two native speakers (again in Buenos Aires) when a colleague from Colorado approached and asked me a question in English. I later calculated that in that moment, I had not heard or spoken English in over two weeks. I blinked at him, utterly nonplussed, thinking he had just said something in Greek or Russian or who-knows-what. A few moments later I realized that I did in fact understand him and that I had just heard (for only a fleeting moment) my own native tongue as if through foreign ears. IT WAS POSITIVELY BIZARRE! And to this day, I always advocate for fellow native English speakers to exercise unlimited patience with foreigners learning our tongue. Besides so many great discrepancies between written and spoken English, we regularly pull off some very odd tricks in this language we all take for granted! So I say to anyone out there learning to speak English, welcome to the neighborhood, do please ignore those who scowl, stick with it, take all the time you need, and BRAVO!
i totally understand what you mean. Im not yet near your level at all. I've been studying Chinese for the past year. I can hardly understand by ear and i cant speak a reasonable sentence thats more than maybe 3 or 4 words. I can read really well, but any out put at all is my weak spot and i really need to focus on that. It can be really difficult and its made me appreciate foreigners that have learned English.
estoy tratando de aprender espanol, pero mi problema mas grande es que cuando hablo con mis companeros de trabajar o la maestra no les puedo entender si no usan verbos basicos. ademas si estan hablando silenciamente mi mente se perde
@@rent2986 "Compañeros de trabajo" y cuantos años has estado aprendiendo español?
@@AfroKing. menos que uno
I understand completely your fifth statement. I am fluent in Spanish and English (native in Sp) and sometimes I don't notice if something is in one language or the other until someone else points it out or I notice it later.
Great video! It’s taken me forever to realize A1, A2, etc aren’t benchmarks you reach, like steps on a staircase, but more phases you pass through! Like, I can’t truly say I’ve achieved A2, until I’ve gone completely through that phase and am now beginning my B1 journey. It’s so fascinating! Can’t wait to reach B1 for input!
Chad, by reading your comment, I'd say you're easily B1, at least on writing.
A1,A2 but when will she B-1(be the 1) for me?😢
B4 you know it!
@@storylearning Haha
@@storylearning such mastery of language
Boooo
that wasn’t even close to funny 😵💫
I feel like A1-A2 levels are a lot of fun cause you learn so fast and it is a beautiful discovery phase 😍B1 is enough for most communication situations and with B2 you can do almost anything on daily life and with friends, even at work if it is not too complex or does not have to be 100% precise, like with translation jobs. For business, if possible of course it is best to have a C1. I feel like C2 is almost impossible to reach 🤯
I've gotten basically C2 in English but it took so many things:
- Was born in an English speaking province but moved out when I was 8
- English speaking grandma (and fully bilingual dad)
- Regular English classes in the education (grade 4-6 + secondaire 1-5 + cegep)
- Waaaaaay too much time spent on the intertubes ^^;
Hmm… i feel like i can consider myself a C2 in Dutch. But Yup, it is indeed very hard. In the first year i learned Dutch around 4-5 hours a day. After that first year, i was around a B2 I’d say. I knew around 5000 words. Then, in the next 3 years i improved a lot by speaking it everyday, doing schoolwork and reading books in Dutch in my free time. Now, 4 years later, people dont (or barely) notice that im a foreigner. I score higher on most tests than my Dutch classmates, which damn, impresses even myself.
But again, im still not sure whether im an upper C1 or a C2.
I feel like getting to this level is almost impossible if you dont literally spend your entire day on it and surround yourself with almost exclusively native speakers.
I feel like C2 is the level where you start using idioms etc to be able to express yourself better. C1 maybe.
Oh and sorry for all the mistakes, im not a native english speaker + im kinda tired :
Edit: rethinking everything, i’d probably consider myself a B2/C1 in english and C1 in Dutch. Im not THAT good 😅
@@boptillyouflop for me a minecraft youtube addiction did the job
I am 30. Been a c2 level in English for about 3 years. But I have spoken English my entire life. I started at a very early age. Yet it took me a lifetime to get from c1 to c2. And I am French. So i knew half of the English vocabulary already.
@@anielad8721Goin off what you just typed I’d definitely say your English is C2, I thought u were a native speaker until u said u weren’t 😂🤷🏿♂️ I want my Spanish to get to this level 💯
I'm currently at B1 in Korean. Everything thing you said is of course correct. I still think about the correct grammar when trying to say a more complicated sentence. Drinking culture is huge in Korea so i have been able to do the "pub test". So far only 2 times have i not had to strain to understand those talking to me. I'm excited to finally push over into B2 territory. My goal is to get there by next year.
Do you think you have arrived at b2 yet? I’m curious to know how long it took between b1 and b2 because I am hoping at the end of 2024 I can take my b1 Spanish to b2
@JabroniJimmy Actually yes! I've done the bar test/ cafe test. And I'm able to keep up in group settings. Also just got my test scores yesterday and according to the test I'm B2, my tutor thinks I can reach C1 soon . But I'm not sure if I agree with that.
What you said about B2 being the point of remembering the language really hits home for me, honestly. I've studied two other languages, both of which I'm fairly sure I got up to B1, but I didn't practice for a few years, and now I think I've mostly forgotten both of them. I think I'm back up to somewhere between A2 and B1 for one of the two languages, since I restarted my learning again. I think I'd like to make it to at least B2 this time.
Omgosh this is me and Italian 😢
There should be levels below A1. Like A0 being, "you know a couple select phrases and 20-100 words."
you mean like some of these self-proclaimed polyglots who pretend they know 20+ languages?😂
Or maybe some sub level of A1 is called for. For example, I am sub A1 in a handful of languages since I know a few ohrases and vocabulary words.
For the vast majority of human languages, I am at A0 since I don't know a single word from these languages and wouldn't even be able to identify the language from hearing it spoken.
I have to translate everything into English to understand but tests show that I know 13,000 words. I can’t read or converse after studying for 10 years and visiting Brasil 19 times. I’ve been practicing every day for 7 years with my girlfriend who only speaks Portuguese. I can’t understand her.
@@stevedavenport1202 Well, if you don't know any part of the language, there's no reason to use the language level system to begin with. "I'm at A0" means "I know some phrases and words, and vaguely the grammar." This stage is important to denote, bc it's the point where you can't say you know a language, but also you don't want it confused with knowing nothing at all
@@stevedavenport1202 no words would probably be just 0, no letters attached ]
I've been studying English for 12 years and I'm still barely C1 which is so frustrating... I feel like the people in the language learning community often underestimate how long it takes to learn a language
Well, I certainly didn't learn English academically, but I do think that my level averages around C1. Although that might be a bit generous towards myself since I don't know a decent amount of really advanced English words of Latin origin. I think I might not know some important proverbs, euphemisms, and very subtle grammatical things, and the way I word my sentences sometimes gets me into misunderstandings, but tbh, that's an issue for me in every language I know, which includes my native tongue. But as far as most conversations go, I don't have any issues getting my point across. And if my conversationalist gets unsure about what I mean, I always try to clarify, if my brain doesn't just die on me, that is. Because recently, my cognitive capabilities are a bit in the gutter, so I might just straight up miss something in a conversation cuz I was thinking of something else, or can't think fast enough, or even think of a satisfying enough answer and so on.
But yeah, I hope my sentences aren't too hard to understand cuz I am a bit of a scatterbrain.
@@danielantony1882 nah, man. I have c1 English certificate and your comment is beyond my English skills
@@angelcosta4383 Shit. For reals? I must be an interesting pile of mess then XD
@@danielantony1882 As a native speaker I can say with confidence if you can write something like this you're beyond the point of needing to care about your level
It doesn't help to talk about how long it takes to learn a language, because it makes you feel not good enough. If you have spent 40 hours a week learning English for 12 years, then C1 is not very good, but I guess you've studied at the most a few hours a week, and probably haven't spent much time in English-speaking countries (like the normal language learner), so you can be proud that you've achieved the level you have. In my experience, even learning a relatively easy language intensively, 32 weeks is incredibly fast to get to a C1 level, unless you also live in the country where the language is spoken. Even then, I'd say it's more like a year or two.
i met a friend from california online a few years ago. i've been learning english for 3/4 years back tben and he thought i was american until i told him otherwise. that's a real conifdence boost
I’m learning French, and I try to read everyday. I listen to an audiobook in French while reading along at the same time. It helps me avoid teaching myself incorrect pronunciation. I read one of your books this way - it was a lot of fun!
If you use audiobooks, my recommendation is to make a clear choice between standard French and the one from Quebec. There is nothing wrong about learning the latter one - especially if you plan to vsit Canada - but the pronunciation is very different and there are also some differences in the vocabulary. European forms of French (spoken mainly in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy) are extremely close to each other so the choice between them is not really important.
@@italixgaming915 Not sure I’d be able to tell the difference at my level. I suppose I could find out who the reader is and google them. Currently, I’m listening to Bonjour Tristesse read by Catherine Deneuve, the famous French actress. It’s too hard for me, but I can follow some of it.
@@theoldone3485 Anybody can differentiate the accent from Quebec from European accents. If you can't tell the difference with Catherine Deneuve's accent, then you probably only heard European accents so far.
@@italixgaming915 I think you're right in that I've only heard European accents so far. Today I had a lesson with a Canadian teacher and "est-ce que" sounded like "est-ce qul".
A very good explanation. I’m at B2 in Spanish, Catalan, French but only B1 in Italian and German. I can really feel the difference when trying to speak fluently.
It's easy when they're all related Romance languages and Indo-European.
I'm at a B1 in Spanish, A2 in Georgian, and both C2 in Cebuano and English. Different language families.
I learned nearly to B2 in French via college and haven't used it in forever, but whenever we used to travel to Europe, I could read Le Monde just fine. Very very cool feeling
Having reached somewhere between B1/B2 and French, I stopped hearing, reading or speaking it, and while I can still understand something, I forgot too much to be able to hold a conversation at this point. Sometimes people also report having forgotten a lot in their native language if they moved to another country and stopped using it for years. Seems to be memory related, as mine was officially tested to be pretty bad, it would match.
@@Kkubey You might want to take choline supplements.
Minored in French in college (graduated 1998). I can near fluently understand written French, understand spoken as long as it's an accent or dialect I've heard. So probably near B2. Speaking or writing, my grammar is probably B1.5 after not practicing for years.
The ultimate test is being able to understand whatever macron is saying, most natives probably wouldn't understand 100% of his speeches as he quasi constantly uses very innovative formulations. Knowing exactly what he's talking about will be fairly simple but actually understanding every single word would be a feat as he developed quite a flourished idiolect
(Note that this only applies to his official speeches)
If you're able to grasp every single word, congrats you reached French C3
This video is gold!
Edit: I say this even when I have gone through this framework directly through the CEFR website, but your beispiel (examples) are real good!
Hands down the best description/demonstration of the levels I've ever heard. Well done, Olly. Cheers.
The best explanation of CEFR levels I have ever seen. Well done.
I often say to students that many native English speakers would not pass a C2 exam.
And only on Friday I was talking with the latina at the check out in one of my local supermarkets and she said "but I only have a B1 in English" to which my automatic response as a teacher was "pero B1 no es nada".
Thanks for this video Olly I will be using it an the ideas for my future classes.
Hi there Olly! I'm Italian and, thanks to this video, I am now sure that I've reached C2 in both English and Spanish. I have lived in the US for a couple of years and I currently reside in Argentina. Based on my personal experience, listening to radios and watching shows or movies, is of great help while learning a foreign language.
I'll definitely binge-watch all of your videos since I honestly believe they could be extremely helpful to further improve my skills. Thank you so much!
yea this is fluent english good job
@@MrCreeperYT_Official thank you so much!
Im currently learning Italian now and Spanish, Judy here from Philippines
@@judzarintocomak9330 I might be biased, but I think Italian is a beautiful language to learn! I love Spanish as well. How far have you gotten?
@@SenorDavid79 I only started this month since I've met an Italian couple here in Taiwan and they are so cool 😁 I'm much more focus on Learning Chinese Mandarin.Maybe you can help me Learning Italian 😅
Thanks for this video. I had gotten to about a B2 in Spanish, but haven't used it much in the last two years and am slipping back to B1. This helped me identify it and also give me a goal to get to a solid C1.
I started learning French two and a half years ago and have reached C2. Only just moved to France, but am constantly being taken for a native - studying language sciences in French without any issues.
How? Spent a lot of time with a French girl, listened to French podcasts, watched French TV series, read French literature and spoke French any chance I got. Also studied the grammar a lot.
It's a lot of hard work. But if you do it out of love, it breezes past instantly and is incredibly rewarding!
The love factor definitely makes a difference to any language learning efforts.
Fascinated by what you said about not forgetting languages you've reached B2 in. I have recently started re-learning my Czech. I studied Russian at university and did Czech as a second subject studying it for three years and spending three months in Brno on a language course as part of it. That was in the 1970s!!! I recently retired and decided I was embarrassed to say I'd done Czech as I'd forgotten it. So I found a really good course and started re-learning. I am actually stunned by how much I can remember. I remember all the grammar and a lot of vocabulary although it is very passive. So I find I am re-activating a language skill that had fallen asleep but not died. I had a similar experience with German recently when I was forced to use my German, a language I haven't studied for nearly thirty years, and found myself capable of saying things I had no idea I could say.
On the other hand I also learned Serbo-Croat in later life up to a point where I was reading novels in it. I also lost touch with this language and now really struggle to remember any of it. So I am wondering if learning these languages when you are young is important too. Languages you learn later in life maybe don't stick in the memory as permanently.
Hi Bob, a native Czech speaker here. I'm glad there is someone learning our difficult (and frankly not very useful) language! :D
where are you doing the course? i'd like to re-learn norwegian and learn german as well :)
I agree. I can still read and speak French, which I learned at school, but have forgotten almost all my Slovene, which I learned as an adult and at which I was C1 level, I would say, according to the video.
Love these deep dives. Thanks for sharing this info. I am very familiar with CEFR, but it's extremely useful to review these metrics during the day-to-day of learning.
Learning a new language is definitely one of the hardest things on earth. It took me 7 years to reach C2 level in English! but hands down, the best way to learn another language is to get someone who you can speak with on a daily basis. When I started dating my current gf(who only speaks english), my vocabulary expanded 2x faster than before. I went from C1 to C2 in a matter of 2 years or less.
I was tested C1 6 years ago. I learned English in school for 9 years, but that didnt really help me a lot, I am also not very talented at learning languages. But after I finnished school, I improved so much just by watching youtube. For me its a huge difference if you live in a foreign country where that language is spoken or if you just learn it in your home country. I lived in the United States for just 6 months and I think that I am close to C2 now. I can understand everything, I can speak about any topic without searching for words and I often think in English aswell. But since I learned most of it by watching videos and listening, I am a bit behind in writing. Honestly I would have never thought that I will reach this level at some point. Thanks youtube!
Thank you so much for adding examples Ollie. This is the first complete video that shows actual people at the different levels. Of course, it varies per person but this is really appreciated. I also like the fact you addressed the often brushed over fact that the different levels aren’t just judged by how well we speak or understand, but also reading and writing, which many language learners don’t speak about much (most focus on speaking and listening comprehension).😊
I used to speak my father's dialect when I was about 4 or 5 but had not spoken it for over 40 years. With the online resources that are available to us now, I can begin retraining myself to hopefully reach B2 level.
Which dialect?
ive been learning english for a few years (8 in school to be exact) and am at the C1 level atm, and i really notice how understanding, speaking and stuff has become much, much easier. So much so, that it takes about as much effort to produce a sentence as in my native language, german. its also interesting how im a better writer than talker in both
That’s awesome! Your English is very good! English is my native language. I’m currently learning French. I plan on learning German next. My grandparents were from Bavaria. I wish you all the best!
I feel confident that I’m in the B1 catagory. My target language is Armenian and i’m currently in Armenia now, and the part about ‘clarity’ is absolutely spot on. Where I am, the native dialect is borderline indecipherable. But when spoken to slower, clearer, and in the ‘correct’ way, I get a heck of a lot more and can actually manage a conversation.
Very interesting video. As a native speaker of German and not a great student in learning foreign languages, I struggled with English for all my school years.
Today I think I am between C1 and C2 when listening or reading English, but I don't have lots of possibilities to speak or write English. (And my grammar tends to be a bit too German). So I think I am between B2 and C1 when speaking or writing.
"as long as yer enjoying the journey; which IS the point remember..." Wise words, to be sure!! Far too many folks who make language learning videos on youtube just talk about wanting to do it "FAST!" which can be great, but it is pivitol to remember that this thing is supposed to be FUN!
I remember the first video I saw about you was about how you got fluent in Spanish. I watched that video like three times because my listening skills weren't very advanced in English, and I found it quite useful and fascinating once I understood it completely. Then I watched your videos cuz I wanted to practice my listening skills, and well, you were perfect to practice with as you speak kind of fast. At this point, I can even watch movies and even listen to the British radio, and I owe a lot of that to you. I currently find myself learning my third language (French) and I watch your videos every time I can only cuz I think this is amazing content. Thanks a lot, Olly. Greetings from Venezuela
Started learning English 2 years ago, my understanding of the language took off when I started to watch and read stuff in English, now I can understand pretty much everything
I'm native in Spanish and going by this a C2+ in English.
Have been praised for my vocabulary and how I easily express myself.
Some slip ups do occur. For example, it feels like I will always struggle with the proper use of "in, on, at" but through daily, almost every waking hour of the day exposure that seemed to get better too.
I was playing cards and videogames in English exclusively by age 14 I believe and now that I'm 30 I claim to be fully bilingual.
I'm native in Polish and also somehwere around C2 in English, and I feel like messing up with "in, on, at" is very common with non-native speakers. I know a lot of people who can also speak English at this level and most of them (including me) mess up the proper usage of "in, on, at"
And yeah I also learned english mostly from videogames, I'm 15 now and it is great knowing a second language
Doesn't help when british english speakers say "at the weekend" and americans say "on the weekend", along with countless other weird things.. differences most native speakers aren't aware of and are liable to mess up themselves. :)
Shout out to all the people who can't even watch movies in their native language without subtitles 😅
underrated comment
OMG! Just now I realized that I passed the "pub-test" on my job interview. I'm brazilian and I've beeing working on a British company for the last 3 years. The first part of the interview was with the brazilian manager, all in english. Later at the same week he invited me to meet our UK manager and take some beers. I thought there would be a final formal interview but after the pub I was hired.
I'm A2 - B1 in English. I use English for 20 years, and I can somewhat write about anything, with mistakes of course, because I never learned grammar intentionally. I can read fast, I understand pretty much everything. I like to read Harry Potter fanfictions, some of them are several hundreds of thousands words long. I browse English websites daily, only to gather information about anything. I understand every word you said in this video. On the other way I am unable to speak fluently, I speak slowly, sometimes I am stuck and I don't know what to say. I use spoken English very little. Everything I learned is in my head, because I wanted to know that, not because someone wanted me to learn that. I can probably reach C1 level pretty fast, only if I had opportunity to speak with someone daily. It's irrelevant about what are you talking, I would probably understand you, but my response would suck.
I also had no one to speak to for 10 years, but I did somewhat overcome the difficulty with speaking/writing by writing on social media (reddit usually) and.. speaking to myself out load lol
Over the years I've studied a lot of technical and academic subjects on my own so there's a lot to think about and process, I just do the thinking part out load. A lot of my studying is done by listening to TH-cam/udemy/etc video courses, so I'm constantly hearing people talk, and thinking out load means I essentially engage in conversation (albeit one sided) about the subject and I have to speak clearly and finish my thoughts, this forces me to practice. I'm not sure what level I'm at right now, but a test I did last year gave me B2. I feel like I'm somewhere between B2 and C1.
Well, instead of speaking to someone if you don’t have anybody to practice your language, so try to think in English as if it is your native language. Or try even to speak English to yourself when you are alone and nobody can see you.
My native language is theoretically German as my mother was German. She never spoke German to me and my sister and I was born and grew up in Macedonia former Yugoslavia, so I learned German in Switzerland, where I live over 3 decades. I had English at school in Macedonia and I also had Englisch lessons here, but it was only a repetition for me and I am watching a lot of TH-cam videos and I’m also reading not only articles but also books in English as I don’t have so much opportunities to speak English with other people. I have some friends who are from United Kingdom, but unfortunately I don’t see them very often. Maybe I should start going again to the English speaking club where people meet and where I can speak English and we spend some time together or organise various activities. And I also never mind to be corrected when I make mistakes, I even encourage people to do so, as I tell them how motivated I am to learn the language as perfectly as possible.
So you can also try to find a German speaking club if there is one in your near environment. Although German is not really very popular.
When I came to Switzerland, I spoke English to the people here, at least to the young people who learned English, but not everybody could speak it, so it took me some years to learn German at the C2 level I can read every book in every field. I can express myself almost as a native speaker. And I can speak very fast and fluently.
I also speak serbo-croatian as both languages are Slavic languages and comparable to Portuguese and Spanish for example. And I understand 85% of Bulgarian language, but I don’t speak it and whenever I speak to the people from Bulgaria living in Switzerland in Macedonian language, they understand me and I do understand them except some expressions which they can explain to me, or I can understand these terms from the context without asking.
No chance you are A2 and you can write and understand that much. Give yourself more credit :)
You probably just need more practice speaking which is fine
You’re definitely not an A2, more like B2 i’d say
This is not A2
I'm trilingual (Arabic (native), English and German). I tried testing my language levels online a few days ago. Now, I know that the tests online may not always be very accurate, so I am aware that I should take the test results with a grain of salt. I tested C1 in both German and English, however, I received B2 in Arabic, despite it being my native language. I speak Arabic in a dialect (I'm new to your channel, but given the fact that you have studied 10 languages, I'll assume that you're aware of Arabs speaking different dialects) and since I do not live in an Arab country, I seem to have some difficulties with Arabic grammar, writing and reading. I can both read and write in Arabic, just slower than Latin script. I'm honestly kind of feeling like a failure, but I guess that it's a sign that I really should start incorperating the Arabic language, especially reading and writing, more in my day-to-day life.
Also it’s important to remember the test is standardized and does not take into account dialects. I would say I speak very good albanian. However, I only speak in my dialect of Albanian because I’ve never been taught or had a need to learn standardized Albanian. Reading I can do that But writing I will only do the bare minimum because it’s difficult. Either way, my point is, your Arabic will always be your best language and the dialects make a huge difference.
Same here with my native language Hindi. I am actually able to think more complex thoughts in English and that drives me to improve my Hindi. When I say to myself I'll only think in Hindi today, I find myself in various situations where I'd like to convey some concept to myself that Hindi just doesn't have the word for or I do not know the word for it. It also makes me realize how different languages convey the same thing in different ways.
@@yamdagni Oh dude i deal with that too! My native language is German, i live in Germany, yet my thinking is 70% in english. I default to english entertainment in my freetime, my friends and i randomly switch languages because neither of us cares which one we use, and we do get stuck in exclusively english a lot. I catch myself struggling to phrase casual conversation in German only. It's honestly kind of bizarre that i take longer to articulate quick thoughts or comments in my native language. I notice it a lot when I'm with my parents and grandparents, who don't speak any english so i can't randomly lapse into english phrases or stick words into my German sentence. Also when I have to have German discussions in university classes and the other students aren't enrolled in English and german studies, it's weirdly difficult to purge all english from my conversation.
Don’t be too harsh on yourself. The Arabic you learn is فحصة and in my experience very different than the dialects spoken, so it’s normal to not be advanced in it. Especially if you don’t/didn’t study it in school.
I think it's very much a thing of children of immigrants that they lag behind with writing and reading. I have very little issue with listening to conversation but I'm reading and writing like a child in second class.
I appreciate your concern and help.
Super useful video. Thanks, man! In the demos, I also noticed that the speaker at B2 sounded most like the foreign students that I went to school with. I looked it up and discovered that B2 was the typical level universities required to study there, so it makes sense.
Also, looking back on it. The only immigrants that I know who speak at a C2 level have lived in the country for decades and went to university here.
It seems kind of absurd that I had as my MINIMUM goal C2 in 5 or 6 languages. B2 would be AWESOME.
This is the clearest explanation with examples of the levels I have found. I love to see examples of each level and which activities are common for each level. Thank you!!
I have been studying Portuguese for a year and a half and I have a course certificate stating C2. Though I do not feel I am even close to native level, I can write down quite sophisticated stuff with the help of Ms. Office corrector and the fact I am a native Spanish speaker. Portuguese is a weird language to learn for a Spanish speaker!
Os dois idiomas são tão próximos que as diferenças são quase mínimas às vezes, aprender espanhol apartir do português ou vice-versa é mais uma questão de aprender as diferenças do que realmente aprender um idioma totalmente novo. Eu diria que é quase o mesmo se fores aprender italiano, devido ao facto de estes idiomas serem todos descendentes do mesmo idioma e de partilhar muito do seu vocabulário, gramática, etc. Às vezes mesmo que não saibas o equivalente no outro idioma vais perceber o que está a ser dito.
Se fores tentar um outro idioma europeu ou até um asiático ias demorar bem mais a aprender.
Es algo especial aprender una otra lengua latina cuando tu lengua materna es una. Soy Francés, y puedo leer español (pues, le aprendi en la escuela), y italiano, catalan, portugues también (pero no puedo hablarlos para nada). Estudiando seriamente, pienso que es posible tener un muy buen nivel con casi cualquiera de ellas - quizá el francés o el rumano sean más dificil. Pero también me parece facil de mezclar las lenguas con tuya o con otra lengua latina que aprendiste.
Disculpame para los acentos faltantes, olvido donde tengo que ponerlos y mi teclado no puede escribir algunos ^^'
I'm so glad to have come across this video. I'm a native English speaker, but I'm learning Spanish. Very much still a beginner. It's really hard to find books in Spanish. Not even the library has books I can borrow. Definitely going to be buying some of your books for practice! Thanks for making them!
This was the best explanation of the different levels I've seen. The videos of people speaking at different levels was very helpful! With the pub test can your level get better as the evening progresses?
@@londongael414 Thanks for the information londongael!
I have found that my Icelandic improves after several beers. Of course, that’s not a solution for navigating daily life. Skál!!
I would think that relaxing with a beer would help.
@@londongael414 Alcohol loosens inhibitions. Back in the day when I was struggling with Spanish, imbibing while watching Spanish-language TV with Hispanic friends really helped my progress. Of course, I would not recommend this "method" to someone struggling with alcohol addiction.
Finally someone who explains it in a cohesive way
This explanation makes me more confident that I am B1 in Japanese now. But it's interesting because one of my best friends is Thai, and I think her English level is also B1 (and she confirmed that based on her knowledge, too), but her English is easily higher than my Japanese. So it's like, within B1 I feel there is a pretty wide range, where you could have two people who are both B1 but one is clearer a "higher" B1 than the other. Probably that is true of every level.
In Europe, the courses are usually seperated into parts. You could say that those are steps within these levels, and reaching the end means you mastered that level and are ready to move up. A1 and A2 usually having 2 parts, B1 having 4 (depending on the amount of hours, those numbers can double). For B2 and above, there are usually no general courses for it, but rather the skills are treated seperately, conversation courses, grammar courses, cooking courses, business/technical/whatever topic a course could be.
i have been learning english for a whole year with duolingo and i want to say that it is so hard for me i am ukrainian trying to make videos in english
Doesn't Japanese have an 'N'-grading system i.e. N1-N5?
@@GGGukr Your English is great. Keep it up, mate. :)
@@frederickpeebles8142 Yes it does, although at the higher levels I've heard it gets quite nit-picky about grammar, some of the tested vocab is different from what's actually common in real life, and it's mostly/entirely multiple choice, I believe. As a result, there are some people who are fluent in Japanese but would not pass the highest levels of the test (N1), and likewise there are people who can pass N1 but are not super comfortable/natural in real world conversations. So I haven't been basing my studying around the tests much, although it does provide one concrete way to structure your learning.
Thanks for this awesome video! I'm about B1/B2 in Spanish. It is encouraging me to hear about getting to a bit of a higher level. I'm not 100% confident I'd pass the pub test so I have to keep pushing. 🙂
Olly Richards has provided an easily-understandable explanation of the six levels of language ability!
*Double your time to acquire languages more distant from your first language.
*Each level takes about twice as long as the previous level to reach (plateau feeling after initial, quick progress.)
*Each level means that level in all of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Enjoy the journey, which is the point!
A1 Beginner
500-700 words
Slow, greet people, breaks
Present-tense
Write a postcard.
Time to reach: 2 months, or 1 month intensive.
A2: Elementary
1,500 words
Smoother, small talk. Grope for words. Understand clear, direct speech.
Tenses - present + past and future!
Write a letter.
*Can begin to read (easy readers!).
Time total: 3 months, intensive.
B1: Intermediate
2,500 words
Confident explain, opine, everyday problem-solving, explain things well.
NOT bilingual yet.
Write one page.
*Can watch movies (with subtitles).
Time total: 7 months (intensive).
B2: Upper-Intermediate
4,000 words
Strangers in a noisy environment okay, arguments, vocal fillers.
Correct own mistakes.
*Natural conversation.
Write anything.
15 months (intensive)
Fluent, but not more here, as it’s not a concept with a generally agreed upon, common definition.
**Once learned to B2 Upper-Intermediate level, will know this language you whole life!
C1: Advanced
8,000 words
Almost effortless understanding, flexible, fast, paraphrase, grammar natural.
**Read complex topics.
Write well.
*Understand (and make!) jokes.
31 months, about 2.6 years, intensive.
C2: Mastery
16,000 words
**Understand complex and technical things you read.
Control, know exact words to convey exact, complicated meaning, feels completely natural.
**Educated, intellectual-sounding to a native listener.
*Sustain a serious discussion/argument.
(But sound like a non-native speaker.)
(Uneducated, native speakers will not test at this Mastery level.)
63 months, about 5.25 years, intensive.
*Watch movies without subtitles! *Read pretty much any book!
Close to native (maybe accent, occasionally choice of word).
*Serious achievement!
knowing that i was between a1 and a2 for welsh makes me feel so good, i thought i was just a failure bcuz i wasnt learning fast enough but i knew more than i thought i did
Took me 2 and a half years or so to reach a solid C1 level. I'm honestly comfortable at this level, but am reaching for a C2, and I think learning at this point is more passive and has more to do with more exposure to the language than anything. I still have questions, but I find those are questions that natives also have, at times. Like the difference between dentro and adentro, which I found out recently is regional, not actually grammatical (though I had been using them interchangeably without even really thinking about it, anyhow).
I can't imagine that there is a better explanation of these language levels than this very video! Thanks a lot for this!
I'm A2 when it comes to Japanese and A1 in ASL, French, and Finnish. I'm at C2 in English, which strangely enough is something a lot of my contemporaries can't say. I fully agree with understanding jokes and wordplay being a benchmark for fluency. You're either fluent by that point, or you only know the punchlines and little else. I would agree with turning off the subtitles as well, if it wasn't for a saying I came up with a while back: "Decades of language learning means nothing against a person who mumbles."
Pending more language tutors then. B)
I tend to have a lot of problems with mumbling and very heavy accents as well, but even in my native language (Dutch) this remains a problem. Some people just can't speak properly...
Feeling accepted as one of the group, among native speakers, it is indeed one of the best feelings ever. I went through so much but now it feels more natural speaking my second language than the first one.
Great video Olly, thanks for doing this. I really like how you showed examples at all the different CEFR levels.
Wow! I didn't look at your channel name before I started this video, I just stumbled upon it looking into the levels. But I've started to learn Italian and am still sub A1 but stumbled across one of your Short Story books a few weeks ago and have been making an effort to get through it! When you brought that exact book up it blew my mind that you're the guy who wrote the book I was reading earlier today.
I've been taking French classes for over 2 years now and I can confidently say that I am at a B1 level. I'm hoping to get to B2 in a year or so. Using the calculations mentioned at the end, A1 2.75 months , A2 8.25 months (adding the two), B1 16.5 months (I reached B2 sometime last year), and B2 33 months. Right now I'm at 22.5 months (10 months spent learning per year), so it should take about another year, which sounds about right according to my teacher's predictions.
omg i read one of your books years ago and i had no idea that you wrote it until i watched this video and put 2 and 2 together. your books are amazing! the french beginner short stories book helped my reading improve quite a lot. thanks again!! 😊
I really liked the pub example of B2 in being able to have a conversation for a while without all the strain and battle to understand and share your thoughts. I think I'm getting closer to B2 Japanese but wouldn't claim it yet as I feel like I'm doing mental gymnastics when it comes to formality/keigo etc and just using the right verbs to describe situations.
I also really like the x2 graph stepper per level! That really put things into perspective for me actually. It feels like a plateau when you get to intermediate in any new language but then picking up another is so easy in the beginning stages, now it makes sense 🤣 Now I feel like I'm not slacking but just on the longer hill now, thank you for this content!
Omg thank you so much for that month breakdown at the end. I flew through A1 for French in less than a month (mostly due to my intermediate level of Spanish and the similarities), but now I’m about to take the A2 test and just don’t feel 100% ready. It’s been one month. I’m not working right now so can devote more time, but also have a three year old sooo, yea…anyway I have your stories books for French, beginner and intermediate, so let me go start reading lol
Sb: I thought this might be a clickbait type of video and it’s definitely not! Very good breakdown ! (And the comments underneath have been helpful too so thx guys)
I've been working on Spanish fluency for about 6 months now. The problem is, it's difficult for me to dedicate a substantial amount of time to it daily. I've decided to work on this more in 2024 and aim to really excel by this time next year. I'm going to try more immersion, as well, and studying verbs daily. Repetition is important for me for sure. I work in medical and we have quite a lot of spanish speaking families. My ultimate goal is to be able to fully communicate without the need for translation services
My language level in Spanish is kaleidoscopic -- it changes every time I look at it. I would like more information about how verb tenses and moods, including simple and compound, and which selection of essential verbs, fits into a self-assessment of language abilities.
I passed a C1 exam in French in the 80% range a few years ago but since I haven’t really used the language since and I have no interest in France or French culture I feel like I’m back at an A2/B1 level.
With English I think I passed the C1 level at around age 15. I’ve been exposed to the language since age 4 through television, but only started studying it formally at age 10. For 15 years now I used English more than my native tongue even though I never moved abroad.
Just started learning German at thirty.
You'll probably find that if you did take up french again it'll come back really fast. Happened to me. I felt like I forgot everything and was back at a very low level but it came back really quickly
usually you'll forget some grammar and even some words. But you won't forget the language in general.
And as Stueckchen said, if you ever use French as main language in daily basis, I guess you'd get at C1 or higher very very fast.
One of the best explanations I’ve heard or seen of the levels! I tested B1 in German a few years ago and started B2 classes but have very much felt like I have plateaued. I had to stop the classes but I live in Germany and have been forcing myself more and more out of my comfort zone to speak much more and now o do feel like I’m in a limbo of B2 and B1 still. Your explanations of the levels definitely resonated with how I’ve felt at each level and made me feel confident about what to expect as I „level up“ more. Great video! Enjoy them all!
To be honest, I'll never forget the first time I spontaneously told a joke, and got a laugh. Still the highpoint of my language journey
Almost a completely c1 English speaker 🎉🎉🎉 things its starting to get interesting now, its getting pretty much easier to larn new words and also learn about culture.
Fantastic explenation of levels Olly, and encouraging to push forward. Many thanks
I've been learning Japanese on the side for a little over two years now (~10 minutes every day), and from this video I'd still be a A1. Granted this is because the grammar and more importantly, the writing requires more memorization than just remembering the word, but I think the main thing holding me back is that I don't have a conversation partner. I bet if I had someone to talk to on a weekly basis I'd shoot up to B1 in a heartbeat.
Yep,Olly speaks pretty fast and as a native he is on C2 level obviously haha what if I understand everything he said am I on C2 too? Thank you very much I didn't expect that
I love that you show us the different levels in English, which is probably the language most of us are fluent in as a demonstration of what we might sound like to others. It really helps me grok what is being said.
I got to somewhere between A2 and B1 in french almost 15 years ago. I'm planning a big trip to France next year so I'm doing some duolingo lessons on it and it surprised me how much of my very limited vocabulary is still there somewhere at the back of my mind. Guessing I'm somewhere between A1 and A2 now.
I'm a native Icelandic speaker (not a lot of us around) and English is the only other language where I might pass at a native speaker, you might just think I'm from a different English speaking country. My Danish and my Spanish are at around A1, very limited but I can catch a few words if I hear a conversation and can manage some very basic interactions with a bit of help from my hands.
i started learning danish two weeks ago and i’m creeping up on a2, im so excited to reach that point and beyond!!!
Good to know the technical level of my French ability. Proud to be a C1 from Texas. French people are usually shocked to hear an American speak French at my level.
As someone who managed to get C1 in English (CAE), German (TestDaf) and Spanish (DELE) I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video! Although many people find these language tests dull (which is true to a certain degree) there are not so many ways to evaluate someone else's claims to be "B2 in French" or "C1 in Spanish". However I like "the Pub test" that seems wonderful to me ;)
Great video.
Interesting point also on the topic of getting to a certain level in speaking but a different one in writing for example. As for me, I know that I have a higher level in Italian in reading (I try to read Italian on a regular basis) than in speaking (as I have very little opportunity to speak the language). And this of course is very true for all people who have studied Latin or Ancient Greek !
Yes, the grammar / translation approach. In recent years I've seen learners of Latin and Ancient Greek being encouraged to speak (eg, Luke Ranieri or Scorpio Martianus / polymathy; also, deka glossai), and Assimil has courses with audio in both languages. They even have a course for Sanskrit and one for Egyptian hieroglyphics.
It's a perfect time to find this video! Thank you from the person learning English for such helpful content.
Ohhh I must be B2 Spanish then, a la the pub test. I lived in Costa Rica for 6 months this year and I was able to befriend all of the bar staff at the local hotel, and none of them spoke English. I was a really great feeling to be able to make friends in a different language. I definitely have a lot more words to learn before i can be completely confident though
I’m A1 in Russian and German, I’m excited to learn more about these languages!
6:55 Bruh you just made me feel good about being B1 in Japanese to dropping the bomb that I'm technically still A1 because I can't physically write 90% of the kanji I know. Unless just typing counts, then I'm still good
Yeah, I was just thinking, "Hmmm... the requirement can't really hold for Japanese or Chinese."
It totally counts lmao. People who actually know how to read and write in such languages will instantly be able to tell that your stroke order is all over the place, the radicals are disjunct and strokes are sometimes drawn in the wrong direction. Learning the stroke order and the radicals is the first thing I always do when picking up a new kanji. Sure, I may know less kanji in total and learn them slower, but I'll be less likely to forget them and will actually be able to read and write on paper. Also, it's a serious flex to write difficult-looking but actually easy kanji. I like to show off with 讐, 魔 and 難 especially.
Excellent advice about the value of getting to level B2. I’m gonna keep pushing. Thank you!
I started learning Spanish on Duolingo last year, Being well past retiremen, it's slow going, but I still think I'm a high A1 or a low A2. Occasionally, I can read an article in the Spanish section of the Times. In the seveties, I taught English conversation in Japan. I would consider myself a high B1 or a low B2 (if it weren't for the writing system).
Ha ha ha! I just watched Olly Richards critique of Language apps. Uh . . . Duolingo didn't make the cut.
@@davevanfunk8917 I use Duolingo, but I don't place a high importance on it. While it's good for acquiring new general vocabulary ("Yo odio el búho verde, jaja!") and practicing translation and sentence structures, I mostly use Assimil with spaced repetition.
Two observations: Very few people who learn another language reach C2 level.
Second observation...This is probably the best explaination of what each level is really like. Well done.
I would argue that the only languages where it’s possible to reach C2 is English because it’s the international language, so there’s so much exposure to be had, or the language of the country you live in (as a foreigner). And it goes without saying that this progress won’t even come naturally, you still have to make a lot of effort. There’s no way that anyone can reach C2 otherwise.
My absolute favorite lvl is B2, always something to learn ❤️
This is hands down the best explanation of the A1 -C2 language levels l have heard
I'm a spaniard who's been learning English all her life, I can't say that I'm exceptional at it though because I don't even hace a C1 certificate, although everyone tells me I'm a C1 at least (I don't think so) I still struggle with C1 listenings and don't turn off subtitles in half of the stuff I watch on Netflix, although I do watch TH-cam without them and I do just fine. Honestly I'm not really confident on my own skills.
Pal, I wouldn't use subtitles as part of your inbuilt test. Most of my family use subtitles about 50% of the time, in English, our native language. We don't have hearing loss, there's just a lot of things going on at once. I do think that they just don't balance dialogue with background audio like they used to. It's so frustrating!
@@orangew3988 mmm thank you, it's sort of relieving to know that even natives use them every once in a while! I really do want to get better at C1 listening extracts tho, that's why I'm trying to use them less
This was so helpful! I am I currently learning Brazilian Portuguese (and previously studied French and German). I totally agree with the B2 level which is where I was in French and I still remember so much! I also teach English as a Second Language and the examples of students speaking at each level were invaluable. I plan to share with my students when they ask "how do I speak like a native speaker?"
Thanks!
It is great you covered what is suppose to be C.E.F.R. I was surprised you did not mention anything about how it helps for peoples CV and resume for their careers.
Also surprising you did not mention, a B2 level is the common standard for students to attain to allow them to study in post secondary school
Your voice is calming to listen to!! I got my B1 certificate 2 years ago. I am using the language for quite a long time now. However, my speaking skills are not there yet. Same with reading. I have just read one book in my life. I just hate reading with a passion. Nevertheless, I need to practice those too!! The main reason for speaking is, I don't know who to speak to. I talk in Farsi at home and talk Dutch in my everyday life. My apologies for my grammar and interpunction. lmao
I found this video to be very informative. CEFR levels seem to be confusing for people who didn't learn new language in last 20 years.
From my own experience I can attest that reading can really boost language proficiency, as proven by a sudden raise in my English grades
Last time I was tested, results showed between B2 and C1 and I am quite certain I would not reach that level without books Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series, with "Colour of Magic" being the first book in English I have ever read.
I still have trouble understanding some of my coworkers though. On the other hand, I sometimes catch mistakes natives make.
Nice choice reading Terry Pratchett!