When traveling, and for a job in an international company, you need solid English skills. We've found out the fastest, cheapest, and most fun ways to learn English.
Most of us have learned English at school. However, this school English often proves to be incomplete and outdated in the practical test. If you are planning your next career move or want to realize your dream of moving to the USA, we recommend a professional English course.
What type of learner are you? Do you prefer sitting on the sofa with a language learning app? Or do you prefer a digital classroom with real people? The language course offerings on the market are diverse.
From somewhat outdated face-to-face instruction to online courses in small groups to brilliant technologies, you'll find the perfect solution for every learning taste. Today's providers focus on fun learning, instant success, and easy-to-use apps and desktop solutions.
The best language course providers in detail:
With entertaining videos, audio files, and beautifully written stories, Gymglish invites you on a journey into the English language. You're in good hands here if you need a little kick in the butt every day to stay on top of your game.
As a Gymglish subscriber, you will receive a customized lesson every morning on your Gymglish app or in your email inbox. After you complete the day's lesson, Gymglish sends you a professional correction, including detailed explanations.
You can add any unknown term to your digital vocabulary notebook with a mouse click to have it translated later during the exercises. Your collected vocabulary remains permanently available and can be repeated as often as you like.
At the end of a Gymglish English course, you'll receive a certificate indicating your current English language level (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, or C2).
Thanks to the lovingly crafted content and little rewards, your daily Gymglish lesson almost feels like a visit with friends. There is always something to smile about with little excerpts from English-language movies, music, or books.
A disadvantage for some Gymglish users might be the text tasks, where you have to remember many details. These details are more useful for training concentration and memory than for language training.
Apart from that, however, Gymglish is a real blast! Ten minutes a day is enough to make quick progress. Learning English is really fun this way!
Mondly is a versatile language learning platform that offers you an interactive and effective learning experience. With the smart app, you can easily learn more than 40 new languages.
Mondly also assesses your pronunciation as you learn together and gives you instant feedback to keep you on track. In addition, the little language genius offers exercises where you can interact with virtual conversation partners to sharpen your conversational skills.
The platform allows you to track your own progress, create personalized study plans and manage your study time. With interactive exercises, games, and a vocabulary trainer, you can make the most of your study time.
With a variety of learning materials, interactive exercises, and innovative features, Mondly offers an effective and fun learning experience.
Whether you want to perfect your pronunciation, master grammar rules, or chat fluently in a foreign language, Mondly offers practical methods for every situation. With Mondly, you can start from any level and learn your language in no time with fun exercises.
Welcome to the world of technology! Rosetta Stone's language training uses the proprietary Dynamic Immersion® method, where you are in constant dialogue with your smartphone, tablet, or computer.
In the interactive exercises, you have to take turns understanding spoken sentences, interpreting pictures, or repeating sentences yourself. Sensational: After you have spoken a sentence, you immediately get a rating of your pronunciation!
As if this learning method wasn't cool enough, you can also choose a topic that best suits your interests. Choose from "Travel," "Family," "Work," and "Basics and more."
Live lessons and one-on-one coaching with expert Rosetta Stone tutors Michelle, Lisa, Erin, and others will jump-start your conversational skills and provide a crash rehearsal for real conversations in English.
As icing on the cake, Rosetta Stone gives you an offline practice feature (audio companion) with artful stories that you can first read, then listen to, and then record and grade yourself at the end.
If you want to sound like a native speaker soon, Rosetta Stone is the perfect learning method for you! The unique approach of continuous dialogue with your language learning platform builds your language skills efficiently and even takes your personal interests into account.
The entertaining mix of listening, speaking, and reading is only topped by the live coaching sessions with tutors, who will give you dress rehearsals for real conversations in everyday life and at work. With Rosetta Stone, you won't waste a single minute of your precious time. We can give a clear recommendation!
One of the most famous language learning providers is Babbel. With an award-winning app and exciting live lessons, this e-learning platform lets you learn English both in a group and on your own.
Thanks to real teachers in the live coaching sessions and speech recognition in the one-on-one training, you can train your pronunciation with direct feedback and also quickly improve your conversational skills.
With various learning activities such as test lessons, podcasts, and games, your learning experience at Babbel is guaranteed not to be boring. The short lesson units of 10-15 minutes allow you to integrate them into your everyday life and are based on your personal preferences.
After a short self-assessment to get you started, you can jump right into the exercises at Babbel and, for example, speak with the app, form sentences from building blocks or have fun with entertaining stories to which you have to answer questions or match synonyms afterward.
As a Babbel participant, you can move freely between the topics of business, travel, and country and people.
Babbel is a solid and good offer for everyone who wants to have some fun while learning English in a group as well as in entertaining individual sessions.
As a special highlight, the integrated games help you deepen your new vocabulary. The practical partner offer "Babbel for two" lets you get away really cheap in a team, e.g., with your partner, family, or friend.
It doesn't matter if you're still studying English as a student or if you've been working for years: talking to international friends, clients, or business partners is the first time your language skills are really put to the test.
While it's perfectly normal to get by on a vacation trip to the USA with fragmentary English and a strong accent, it can be difficult in your professional life.
The biggest problem with our school English is that the curricula are usually based on outdated examples that are far away from real-life situations. In addition, even experienced English teachers have often spent little time in the USA and are unfamiliar with current evolutions in US linguistic practices.
It often happens that students speak much better English than their teachers, thanks to YouTube, Netflix, and Co. but are regularly corrected downwards in terms of modern language use.
The reason for this is that the everyday and practical use of the English language in professional and private life often does not match the classic textbook grammar. Because of this "narrow-mindedness" of the school system, you will not be able to speak business-fluent English even after taking an advanced English course.
So if you want to live and work in the USA, you should not neglect professional language coaching in your preparations. Modern offers with native-speaking teachers and intelligent technologies help you to acquire presentable English quickly and with a lot of fun.
Are you currently applying for a job and don't know how to describe your English skills? Then use the CEFR levels A1, A2, B2, B2, C1, and C2 explained in this article as a guide. They correspond to the following terms used in the resume:
| Language level | Phrasing in applications |
|---|---|
| A1 | Basic knowledge |
| A2 | Advanced basic knowledge |
| B1 | Conversational |
| B2 | Fluent |
| C1 | Business fluent |
| C2 | Native speaker level |
You can also take a placement test on many language learning platforms, such as Gymglish, and use the result as a reference.
The "Common European Framework of Reference" (CEFR) defines fixed language levels that all European institutions have been able to agree on and which make all language certificates issued comparable. The European standardized language levels are called A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2.
If you have reached the A1 language level, you can understand simple sentences in English and thus cover your basic needs, so to speak, on vacation in the USA. This includes personal introductions, naming individual objects and places, and asking for help in everyday life, e.g., for directions.
At an A2 language level, you can understand much more than just basic knowledge such as names and places in conversations but already understand deeper contexts. For example, you can tell a short story about your family that others can understand.
From a B1 level, you will hardly have any problems understanding if your counterpart speaks slowly in clear English without dialect or accent. Familiar topics from work and everyday life can already be communicated fluently. At B1, a conversation in English is fun because you have enough words to discuss emotional topics and plans for the future.
At a B2 level, you can speak freely and fluently and use your English in a professional context without major difficulties - at least in your field or specialty. You can also understand complex sentences well at B2, and people with a slight accent or dialect are easy to understand.
With a C1 language level, you are a true English master! Even long and demanding conversations are easy to understand. You can express what's on your mind spontaneously, fluently, and precisely. At C1 level, it's hardly possible to distinguish you from a native speaker at work or in your free time - apart from your "cute German accent", of course.
At the C2 level, you can write and tell detailed stories in English, understand and describe complex contexts, and pick out subtle nuances of meaning. You have surpassed many native speakers with your grammar and spelling skills and can communicate spontaneously, creatively, and fluently in English. Congratulations, you have reached your learning goal!
You don't feel like learning with apps, courses, and language tests? That's understandable because learning is work. Movies, series, and music are great alternatives when learning English.
Try watching your favorite series in the original sound with subtitles. Or read the lyrics while listening to your favorite songs for a change. This way, you'll learn new words and phrases every day without any effort and easily become an English pro.
The best way to learn English has always been a language study trip to the United States. This is a temporary vacation, in which you attend a language school between 15 and 30 hours per week.
During the rest of the vacation, you are integrated into everyday life in the USA, including leisure activities.
The USA has always been the most popular country among exchange students. The highly desired exchange programs are a reliable career springboard as well as a great way to learn English.
Have you successfully polished up your English skills? Then this is a good time to take the next step! If you want to live and work in the USA, it's best to get a Green Card first, which gives you almost all the rights of a US citizen.
In the annual Green Card Lottery, the US government gives away 55,000 Green Cards to participants worldwide. It only takes a few minutes to register for the lottery - we'll keep our fingers crossed for you!
Win one of 55,000 Green Cards in the official Green Card Lottery of the US authorities!