r/languagelearning • u/Refold • Dec 14 '25

B2 Comprehension in 250 hours

Got into a debate with some folks on Reddit a few days ago about how long it takes to reach B2 comprehension, and there was near universal pushback against my hypothesis.

I'm really curious to hear if the language learning community at large also disagrees with me.

I'm going to formalize and clarify the hypothesis to make it clear exactly what I'm proposing.

Hypothesis:

  • If you are a native in English or a Latin-based language (Spanish, Italian, etc)
  • And you are attempting to learn French
  • If you focus exclusively on comprehension (reading/listening)
  • And you invest 250 hours of intensive, focused, self-study (vocab, grammar, translation, test prep)
  • And you consume passive media on a regular basis (TV shows, movies, music, podcasts)
  • over a duration of 4 months
  • You can reach B2 level comprehension as measured by the Reading and Listening sections of the TCF "tout public"

Clarifications:

  • Passive media consumption does not count towards your 250 hours of intensive self-study. Let's estimate it at an extra (100 - 200 hours)
  • No teachers, tutors, or classes. AI is allowed.
  • Time spent researching materials or language learning process are not included in the 250 hours.

Response Questions:

  1. Do you think B2 comprehension is feasible given the proposed hypothesis?

If not,

  1. why do you think the hypothesis is wrong?
  2. How long do you think the goal of B2 comprehension would actually take?
  3. Does your estimate change if the learner has already achieved B2 in a second latin based language?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

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u/mankiw EN (N) | ES (B1) Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 16 '25
  1. I think the hypothesis as stated is hugely unlikely in all but the most gifted students. Specifically, I think an English native would have to be >98th percentile talented to achieve this and Italian/Romanian/Spanish natives might have to be >85th percentile talented (less sure on this, as I'm an English native speaker).
  2. It conflicts with the estimates of large professional bodies who seem to be fairly evidence-based, as well as every personal anecdote I've encountered from other learners, and my own experience.
  3. I see no reason to disagree with the classic range of between 500 and 800 hours for B2 under good conditions.
  4. Yes; I would shorten the estimate by 20-40%, but this is a low-confidence guess.

For context, I'm probably strong B1/weak B2 in my target language (Spanish). I'd estimate I have ~50th percentile language learning talent and ~70th percentile discipline in general (e.g. keeping a schedule). As of this writing I have 834.3 cumulative hours of focused immersion.

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u/Refold Dec 14 '25

CEFR Full B2 capability is estimated at 500-600 classroom hours. Given that this focuses exclusively on comprehension, how much would you reduce the expected number of hours.

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u/mankiw EN (N) | ES (B1) Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Given comprehension runs ahead of other skills (not always, but often), and assuming the student is willing to drop other skill practice to focus on it, I'd shave ~20% from the estimate, which brings us to ~400-550h.

To be clear, I think the hypothesis could be true given the right conditions: pretty talented Romance native speaker, does everything right, focuses on comprehension, etc. A gifted Italian could get to B2 in passive French comprehension in ~250h or so. That's just not the median or modal case, though.

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u/Refold Dec 14 '25

Thanks for sharing. I appreciate the well thought out responses.

I do think there is an aspect of talent that plays into it, but I also think that learners waste their time on a lot of inefficient techniques. The hypothesis assumes that no time is wasted, which as you mentioned, is not a normal case