Case study: How I learned to speak English in 6 months
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I can definitely see the progress. Just 6 months ago I could only say “My name is…” Now I can speak fluent English!
After years of only using technical English at work, Andrea decided that it was time to boost her English speaking skills. An Italian native, Andrea studied a bit of English at university 25 years ago, and still remembered some of the basics. But she has a passion for travel, and knowing “just the basics” in English was starting to hold her back from experiencing other cultures to the fullest. Luckily, her company, AGS, offered her the opportunity to take English lessons with Preply.
Preply is an online tutoring platform that offers real conversations with expert tutors. Preply provided Andrea with 1-on-1 classes via video chat with a tutor of her choice. This allowed her to improve her conversational skills in real-time. Best of all, Andrea was able to drastically improve her English while adhering to her busy schedule.
Here’s how lessons with a Preply tutor allowed Andrea to speak English in 6 months.
Why did you decide to take English lessons with Preply?
I had to learn English for work purposes. Unfortunately, I only needed to use technical English at work, and I didn’t have many opportunities to practice speaking English with other people during work hours. I need English fluency for when I travel outside of Italy to speak with people, and understand those who I interact with.
When my company offered me business language training I was really happy. I tried my best to speak English before but I still felt like I couldn’t understand much. I wanted the chance to start learning again.
How would you describe your experience finding a tutor?
I found Preply’s platform very interesting; the teachers all have a little video presentation to introduce themselves. This really helped me to decide between one teacher and another.
I was happy to find a very interesting and professional teacher who catered to my needs specifically. He’s just a very good person in general. I liked that I had the opportunity to try 2 or 3 others before I chose him. I’m glad I did because It was also very important for me to choose an English teacher who spoke Italian. Because he spoke Italian, he was able to help me with certain words and phrases that I wouldn’t be able to understand otherwise.
What was your learning experience like?
I would usually study after work, in the evenings. But because of the coronavirus lockdown, I was able to study more during the day.
My teacher really helped me to create an effective learning habit. The 1-hour lessons gave me a chance to speak with my teacher and incorporate some new grammar techniques. This was great because I wanted to increase my English speaking level overall.
How has your new fluency changed your life?
I can definitely see the progress. Just 6 months ago I could only say ‘My name is…’, and now I can speak fluent English! This has helped me with all kinds of everyday situations. I like to eat out, and now I can read the menu and order dishes at all the restaurants I go to. And I can finally speak English with other people when I travel!
Would you recommend Preply to others?
In the last 2 weeks, I recommended Preply to my sister and my brother-in-law. They were sold after I described it to them and told them how happy I was with the results I had. Now they are also very happy with their experience learning a new language on Preply!
Don’t forget to give a look to our comprehensive guide: How to learn English
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