Refreshing your English as an adult: how to get back into it after years

Refreshing your English: why it is easier than you think

If you have not spoken English for years, you often feel like a beginner. That impression is misleading. Most of what you learned at school is still there, just no longer instantly available. Experts call this passive knowledge: you recognise words and structures when you hear or read them, but you cannot find them quickly enough when you speak.

That is your advantage: refreshing is much faster than learning from scratch, because you are not starting from zero but reactivating existing connections. Many returning learners experience a moment after a few weeks of regular practice when “it all comes back”.

You are in good company, by the way. According to the Eurostat analysis of foreign language skills, around a quarter (25.3 per cent) of 25- to 64-year-olds in the EU said in 2022 that they did not know any foreign language. And of those who knew at least one, only 28 per cent rated their best foreign language as very good. Feeling unsure in English is the rule rather than the exception.

If you would rather start with support, our language courses for individuals include formats designed for returning learners, online and with flexible timing.

Rusty school English? A self-check to find your starting point

Find your starting point before you buy materials or book a course: answer the six statements below about listening, speaking, writing and grammar honestly with yes or no. Zero to two yeses suggest A1 to A2, three to four suggest A2 to B1, and five or six suggest B1 or higher. It takes two minutes and saves you weeks.

• I understand the main point of simple English news, for example from BBC or VOA Learning English.
• I can introduce myself and talk about my job for two or three minutes.
• I can write a short email to arrange or move an appointment.
• I know the difference between I worked and I have worked.
• I can describe a problem in a restaurant or hotel and ask for a solution.
• I can broadly follow series with English subtitles.

Result: zero to two yeses suggest A1 to A2, three to four suggest A2 to B1, five or six suggest B1 or higher. This is a rough guide, not a test. For a more precise picture, use a professional placement test or the advice in our article on self-assessing your language level.

The typical profile of returning learners

In our placement interviews with adults who learned English at school, a similar picture often emerges: reading and listening are half a level to a full level higher than speaking and writing. Knowing this, you can invest your learning time specifically in the active skills.

Which grammar should you refresh first when getting back into English?

Refresh the present simple and present continuous, the past simple and present perfect, and questions with do/does/did first. Next come the future with will and going to and modal verbs for politeness, and finally if-clauses and the passive. For everyday life and work, these few areas are enough to begin with, but they need to be secure.

A compact overview of all the tenses is in our article English tenses at a glance (in German). Remember: grammar serves speaking, not the other way round. Learn every structure together with three sentences about your own life.

Typical mistakes made by returning learners

• I am working here since 2015. Correct: I have worked here since 2015.
• Yesterday I have met a colleague. Correct: Yesterday I met a colleague.
• He go to work by car. Correct: He goes to work by car.
• Can you say me the time? Correct: Can you tell me the time?

Reactivating vocabulary: refreshing your English in everyday life

Forgotten words come back fastest when you meet them often, using vocabulary from your own life rather than word lists from a course book. Three methods work well for adults: quietly commenting on your day in English, learning words as fixed phrases, and reviewing them with a flashcard app that uses spaced repetition. Together they rebuild your active vocabulary.

Three methods that work well for adults

1. Comment on your day: while cooking or commuting, quietly describe in English what you are doing. Note down any words you are missing and look them up later.
2. Topic lists with chunks: do not learn appointment on its own, but to make an appointment, to reschedule an appointment, to cancel an appointment.
3. Spaced repetition: flashcard apps with a review algorithm show you words just as you are about to forget them. More on this in learning vocabulary effectively.

Useful phrases for getting back into English

Refreshing your English for work: the key situations

The key situations at work are introducing yourself and your role, writing short emails, following a meeting and contributing briefly, making phone calls and handling small talk. For each of these, write down five to ten sentences you genuinely need and practise them aloud until they come without thinking. This builds confidence faster than any grammar chapter.

Many adults refresh their English because something changes at work: a new parent company abroad, international clients, a team with colleagues from other countries. In that case it pays not to learn “in general” but to start from the situations you will actually face.

The five most common situations at work

• Introducing yourself and your role: in video calls, with new clients, during onboarding.
• Writing short emails: appointments, queries, confirmations.
• Following a meeting and contributing briefly: agreeing, asking questions, giving a status update.
• Phone calls: without facial expressions or gestures, often with a range of accents.
• Small talk: before and after meetings, at trade fairs, over lunch.

Starter phrases for work

In our experience, this approach increases your confidence at work faster than working through grammar chapters. Learning for your job has a further benefit: the new phrases come up again immediately in your daily routine, so they stick almost by themselves. If you are employed in Germany, you may be able to use educational leave (Bildungsurlaub) for a language course to take an intensive course.

Learning plan: refresh your English in 8 weeks

You can refresh your English in eight weeks by setting one focus each week: finding your level, the present and questions, the past, listening, polite phrasing, writing, speaking under time pressure and finally taking stock. The plan assumes about three to four hours a week spread over at least four days and suits returning learners at A2 to B1.

Free listening materials designed for learners are available from BBC Learning English and VOA Learning English, for example. For the listening weeks, the tips in improving your English listening will also help.

Which course format suits an English refresher?

Self-study works if you are disciplined and mainly want to reactivate passive knowledge. As soon as confident speaking is the goal, you need someone to talk to. Three formats are worth considering for returning learners: one-to-one lessons online, a small group, or a combination of both. Each suits a different schedule, budget and goal.

• One-to-one lessons online: maximum speaking time, content tailored exactly to your goal, flexible scheduling. Ideal if you are short of time or have a specific goal.
• Small group: cheaper per person, exchange with other learners, fixed times. Best with four participants, six at most.
• Combination: a group course for continuity, plus individual lessons for specific topics such as job interviews.

We compare the pros and cons in detail in one-to-one or group course. What to look for when choosing a provider is covered in choosing an online language course.

At choices®, every course starts with a needs analysis, so you do not spend time on material you already know. Courses for individuals start from €49.99 incl. VAT per 45-minute lesson. If you want to get back into English for your career, you will also find suitable content in our Business English courses, which are available from A1.

Keeping going: staying motivated as an adult learner of English

Most returning learners do not fail because of the material but because of everyday life. You stay motivated with fixed time slots instead of learning when you happen to have time, small wins you note down each week, real reasons to use English, mistakes you plan for and realistic expectations about the pace. Here are the strategies in detail:

• Fixed time slots: “Tuesday and Thursday, 7.30 am” works better than “when I have time”.
• Make small wins visible: every week, note one thing you can do now that you could not do before.
• Create real occasions: ordering a book in English, a comment in a specialist forum, a conversation with an international colleague.
• Plan for mistakes: anyone learning to speak makes mistakes. If you find that hard, read our article on overcoming the fear of speaking English.
• Realistic expectations: how much time one level step takes is shown in how long does it take to learn English?

Whether you live in Munich, Vienna or Zurich makes no difference with online lessons: what matters is that the sessions fit into your routine. If you would like to plan your return to English with support, we will be happy to advise you on our English courses for adults. You will find an overview of all our English formats under English courses online, and our contact page is there for any questions.

Sources

1. ec.europa.eu: Foreign language skills statistics
2. bbc.co.uk: learningenglish
3. learningenglish.voanews.com

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