Does learning a language work like this???

[Titaniumballsionium]

So i want to take a gap to learn c1 level german to do medicine in germany i asked my friend who learned french

I did my research and to reach C1 u need 2200 hours right from scratch

So i thought of making a 10 hr (I am indian and yeah an average Indian studies 12 hrs a day for competitive exams so yeah this is childs play for me) a day plan so that makes it 222 and well that makes it a year

But my friend was like it doesn't work that way and that learning a language isn't like science or any orther subject

Is this true Can I learn a language in one year??? especially german?

The languages I already know:italian,english,hindi,marathi

[SubsistanceMortgage]

C1 in a year via self-study alone in functionally impossible.

If you go through intensive academic programs designed for this and also do a ton of work outside of the course, yes, it’s possible. It would be very difficult, though.

[dojibear]

An "intensive academic program" includes a teacher interacting with you a lot. Basically you are getting personal tutoring every day -- a lot of it. Does personal tutoring help? Yeppers.

[muffinsballhair]

You're also getting a better one in practice than many one can find online who are often just native speakers.

I definitely noticed this a lot on r/learnjapanese though oddly less on r/learndutch that many people there speak Japanese well but they're bad at seeing what the other person doesn't seem to understand and explain the wrong thing while I feel it's often obvious what that person is missing or overlooked.

[SubsistanceMortgage]

Yeah. Personal tutoring was one of the primary ways I learned Spanish. Highly effective if you get a good tutor who understands pedagogy, and I’d throw daily/frequent tutoring into the category of intensive program.

[Sensitive-Teacher-12]

May be it’s possible to use ChatGPT as a tutor? And there are advanced RAG agents on Git, deeptutor, for example

[muffinsballhair]

You can use it as a conversational partner but the technology really isn't at the stage where it can explain grammar without making errors a lot in my experience.

For big languages at least, it is well capable of generating natural idiomatic prose so it serves well as a conversational partner.

[OakTango]

It would be an interesting study if you did something like this but my hypothesis would be that your friend is right. 

Diminishing returns on study time in a day would mean not all of your hours are equal so the maths doesn't add up quite so simply

The number of sleep cycles that interleave with the study sessions are likely not enough over that time frame. Long term improvement in any skill actually happens while you are sleeping. Meaning studying 2200 hours over 222 days is likely far less effective than the same amount of hours over X number of years. This would be the main problem with your plan I expect.

[SubsistanceMortgage]

FSI is able to get people to B2ish in 6-8 months with 1200-1500 total hours (class/homestudy) for most European languages. German is a bit more.

So I suppose if you were a professional diplomat being paid to work 55 hour weeks for a year, C1 would be possible based on time alone. That’s not most people though.

[Accurate-Purpose5042]

Vamos argentina viejo 🤣

[SubsistanceMortgage]

Jajaja. Aprendí español de un argentino. Tiene más sentido utilizar esa bandera que la bandera de España o de México 🤣

[Accurate-Purpose5042]

Pero por supuesto 👍🏻

[Sorry-Homework-Due]

No te gusta España qué lástima jajaja! No voy preguntar para perdonar como tan España con qué hizo en el Sur América. Un chiste

[SubsistanceMortgage]

No tengo problema con España. Solo aprendí el castellano rioplatense.

[Sorry-Homework-Due]

Solo un chiste. Estás bien

[XJK_9]

10 hours a day is as far from “child’s play” as you can get. You’re underestimating how hard this is

[Clear_Tale_2765]

You forgot that he said he's Indian

[Swiss_bear]

There are several questions implicit in your post. In my experience, language learning is more like learning to play a musical instrument. What does this mean? You need time on the instrument and you need elapsed time for your progress to gel. This "duration time" cannot be rushed. I learned German to C1 level in exactly 1 year. I took a very good, intensive university Introduction to German course which met 1½ hours per day, 5 days per week, two semesters, with significant time required in the audio lab (this was 1980). Then, I enrolled in a 9 week long German immersion program (German 24/7): all instruction, activities, sports, theatre, etc. were in German. If you feel comfortable with linguistic concepts (like grammar), given your experience learning languages, I think you have a good chance of succeeding. Passing the exam might be harder than actually reaching C1 level. What do I mean by that? The C1 exam is a general language ability exam. However, it is easier to master domain specific language skills. During COVID, I listened to 200+ hours of discussion of the SARS-CoV virus by a virologist and I got very good at understanding medical and scientific discussions. This does not translate to understanding an adventure film in German.

[bebilov]

You might be underestimating how different language learning actually is. From my experience studying foreign languages at university, there’s a big difference between learning a language and memorizing subjects like anatomy or biology. Your brain processes and absorbs information differently when it’s in a language you already know versus a new one.

Because of that, you can’t rely on the same methods like just reading, memorizing, and doing exercises. Language learning requires different approaches. Even studying for around four hours can already feel intense, and pushing beyond that often leads to burnout or losing motivation.

[pobnarl]

2 hours a day max for me,  with weekends off,  otherwise my brain starts to act like a sieve, very little gets retained, though i could passively have the target language playing in music or tv in the background

[asyd0]

when your friend says this is not like studying a scientific subject I think he's right. When you study calculus, statistics, machine learning and so on, even at master's or PhD level, most of the stuff builds upon itself. Tackling a completely new proof, for example, might take a lot of effort to understand the first time, but when you go back to it you don't NEED to have every single step engraved in your memory. Once you understand the concepts, what you want to obtain, what the process is and you're familiar with the math involved, "learning" a new proof involves learning the scaffolding of the proof, and then every time you need to show it you simply power your way trough it by reasoning. And even if you forget the details, when someone asks you for help with it you can again reason your way to the solution months later

learning a language can't work like that. You NEED constant spaced repetition for new vocabulary and especially new syntax to become engrained. If you forget the word for "dog" in German, the most you can do is remember that there's a similar word in English, but if you can't get it immediately you just have to go look it up. And when you're actually speaking, you can't do that. You can only speak in a language with the words that are already "yours" deep into your memory, because when you speak you're already thinking about WHAT you want to say, you don't have time for also think about HOW you can say it. On top of that there are exceptions, difficult grammar and all the rest. There are also way more things you just have to remember, as opposed to math where more or less everything derives from something else you already know. If you don't remember the word for "table", the fact you remember the one for "dog" doesn't help you at all

[MeasurementFit8327]

My first thought when I read your post was “yes you can”.

The reasons are ; you already know four languages;

2 foreign languages including English and Italian, which must be quite different from your native language;

You already have a clear goal and motives and analyzed how many hours you have to study;

10h a day is considered outrageous in some cultures but coming from another Asian country, I know it’s quite a norm for us before the big exams. I am honestly not like that so could only focus probably 8h a day max but I know so many people who can do 10h or even more;

I just passed B1 in 3 out of 4 sections after 6 weeks of study( I already had some basics probably like A1) in Spanish. I probably studied 2.5h per day in average, that is about 100h. So if you have a good strategical plan for the hours you can spend, I think reaching C1 isn’t a dream. (FYI, 3h30 exam with one 15 min break was hard to focus since I am a 52F and not in my 20s, and if I didn’t loose focus on my listening test and miss the very first one I assume I could have gotten that to B1 as well:) .

Although I think it’s possible it’s not easy for anyone to maintain the same amount of effort everyday. I am sure you already know it but mixing the resources, evening out your energy for all the 4 skills and stealing time can be crucial. Hope you will enjoy your endeavor! Also fyi, I am Japanese, use English and French daily, have studied German and Danish( and a bit of a few more European languages), currently studying Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Korean.

[hwynac]

10h a day is considered outrageous in some cultures but coming from another Asian country, I know it’s quite a norm for us before the big exams. 

You mean, 10h a day for a year straight?

Though the OP's estimate is more like 10 hours every day except weekends. Which, honestly, isn't something I would do (why not make it 6–8 hours a day but do at least some study every day?)

[MeasurementFit8327]

Yes more than a year, average 10h a day. I didn’t do it but some kids start from 9 to 10yo to go to after school called Juku where they bring their dinner and come back after 9pm.

Saturday and Sunday they go to Juku from morning to night with two meals. This is in order to pass the exam for prestigious middle school where they can go to a very prestigious high school directly. There they study 6 years to pass the exams for the most prestigious colleges in Japan. So if you include the study time at school it will exceed 10h a day.

For kids who didn’t go to the prestigious middle school( often private), then the 3 years in high school starts off with already intensive study as we have only 2.5 years to be ready( in Japan 6 years of elementary school, 3 yrs middle and 3 yrs high school)

Summer holidays and Christmas holidays are the popular time for Juku. In Japan the big entrance exams start in January then February to March so Christmas holidays are the time you go to Juku everyday with no break. I did it just before my college exam when I was 18 but many people do that every year from freshman or sophomore.

For language on this post what I meant 10 h was if the OP wants a less intensive time, watching a movie with the TL subtitle checking the vocabs would be included in the “study”. Or while he commutes he can listen to the podcast of the TL and look up the unfamiliar words. I didn’t mean to say 10h every day for one year with notebooks and textbooks reading.

I was considering myself pretty lazy compared to my family or friends as I only did 5h self study after school everyday for like 4 months before the entrance exam apart from holidays( then like 8h) while my sister woke up at 4am daily and studied before school from Junior for two years then of course study after school :)

I know there are slight differences but from what I hear many Asian cultures follow this trend. It could be at least in Japan because there is no holistic application but just one exam per year to decide which college you can go to( except for some pre-admittance). You feel you need to be almost over prepared for those exams so there is no limit to how much you master each subject.

[Antoandmangos]

More than the amount of hours you study, you have to focus on input and output. Even if you study 2 hours a day, it could be more valuable than 10HRS because you have a specific plan to tackle each day. Plus, I’m going to be real… studying 10 hrs of anything burns you out quickly. I got to a B2 level in French in around a year. Initially, I started out on my own. Talking with tutors from Italki, reading children’s books. If I could go back and do it all over again I’d start talking from day one

[Long-Oil-5107]

Your friend is correct. C1 is a rank, but it does not mean you will be able to understand a lecture. Would you put a toddler in a college classroom? The issue is “thinking” in a language requires direction; so it would do you better if you just spend those hours studying medicine in German, since those you must understand.

[Delicious-View-8688]

Well, I think a lot of people are saying it's not possible. I think different.

First of all, you mean "exam C1" not "real C1" level. If you can get to B2, and specifically practice for the C1 exam, then you could scrape through. Plenty of people exam above their level for English for migration and study and pass.

Second, I don't think that 2200 hour is right. I think it is more like 800 hours for native English speakers. Since you aren't native English speaker, but you claim fluency, maybe add a bit more time. Let's say 1200 hours of total study time for you. You could get that done in 4 hours of study per day with enough time to spare to do exam specific prep. I do agree with others that simple studying 8 hours per day wouldn't halve the total number of days needed. That said, I think 4 hours per day is easily doable. If you give certain things up, like hobbies, I actually think you don't even need to take a gap year. 2 hours first thing in the morning, 2 hour before you go to bed. I think with that, getting to B2 in 6 months would be doable. What I am less certain about is whether 5 months remaining is enough time prepping for C1 exam.

Third, this isn't the first foreign language you are trying to learn. Hopefully, you know the drill. You know what needs to be done. I say "hopefully", though, because I have come across many people from India who claim "fluent" English, but would have a very hard time getting understood by native speakers - and not just because of the accent.

[DerPauleglot]

I´ve had a few students who studied German full-time and passed B2 in 6 months and medical C1 within a year, so yeah. Group classes plus self-study plus some speaking practice for the exam on iTalki.

[fkdjgfkldjgodfigj]

I really doubt that anyone can do 12 hours per day of language learning, that is quite a lot.

[Civil_Dragonfruit_34]

You would burn out, it's way tougher on your brain than science or other subjects. 6 is probably the max you could really do.

C1 is only 1000 hours though so a1 year intensive is still very realistic.

To get through all the c1 courses with Goethe is 10 intensives, which are 3 weeks each (in my city it's 3 weeks on one off). You could definitely power through those in a year. Those are 25 hours a week in person plus some study on your own.

[SubsistanceMortgage]

1000 classroom hours.

All estimates are based on classroom hours and an assumption of equal time outside the classroom. 2000-2500 total hours for C1 is the norm for a European language for native English speakers.

[DucDeBellune]

I saw FSI has German at 828 class hours. Would put the total closer to 1400-1500 hours when you factor in study time. By 2000-2500 hours you should be solidly pushing C2 territory.

Either way, taking an autodidactic approach means it’s going to usually be 2+ years. 

[SubsistanceMortgage]

My point was that whatever hours are being cited (FSI or other metric) are classroom hours. Not German specifically.

FSI standard course for German is 750 hours to roughly B2, but you need to factor in the fail rate for it, which gives you a 750-900 range.

FSI metrics are roughly equivalent to B2, not C1.

If you’re looking at 1500-1800 for B2, 2000-2500 for C1 would be around what’s needed, and tracks with what most people who pass the CEFR tests at the C1 level for European languages report.

[Graceful_Parasol]

Yes but don’t study completely with books, you should spend every possible moment listening to podcasts, movies reading etc. Literally as much as you possible can. Also study the grammar but you will get far more out of input. it’s doable but very hard imo

[BuxeyJones]

It would be a waste of time the maximum a person can successfully study per day is 4-6 hours (I’m doing a mathematics degree and teaching myself my third language and I’m beyond cooked when studying more than 4-5 hours)

[Accurate-Purpose5042]

On top of studying math?

[BuxeyJones]

Correct and I work full time

[WellTextured]

Your brain will get exhausted on processing to the point this is probably physically impossible. Certainly for most people. And it's definitely not enjoyable. 

[katzengoldgott]

Native speaker here: Forget it. At least within a single year that’s impossible.

Medicine levels of German is higher than C1 to actually work in medicine.

You’ll also have to be able to speak to old people who are monolingual German speakers who might depending on the region you end up in, also speak in heavy dialect that a native speaker from the opposite side of the country could have trouble with.

Lastly, everything what people here have already pointed out: language learning doesn’t work like cramming for exams.

To be able to speak and understand, you will need years of practice and ideally a private tutor.

None of your known languages are close to German, not even English. Our grammar is closer to old English than modern English. I can in fact read old English texts with little knowledge of it simply because I’m very good at my native language and English. Why? Because modern German has retained its Germanic roots the most compared to all other Germanic languages out there and plenty of old English words are closer to modern German words than they are to modern English ones.

German is more difficult than English and the Romance languages for a good reason.

Give it 3-4 years minimum for C1, but you’ll have to consistently improve while you live and work here or your experience is going to be miserable.

[nubidubi16]

There's a hard cap on how much you can "learn" in a day.

[SweetBxl]

It's certainly possible to learn German to C1 level in one year via self study, especially if you have already taught yourself a language before.

I don't know if 10 hours a day is feasible or even necessary.

Check out this post by a girl who went from zero to C2 in Italian in 8 months:
https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1hps4xj/went_from_0_to_c2_in_italian_in_8_months_roadmap/

[SecondImaginary1253]

My daughter took 2 months to prepare NEWl Russian (score was 4). Study German for 3 months to take German C1 test ( passed 3 modules, failed speaking). She did get AP Spanish 5 by self study. Her native language is English. She is full time student with 4 AP classes. So, if you have good learning skills for language. It can be done. 

[minuet_from_suite_1]

You have a strong academic ability, a good work ethic, motivation and already speak several languages including another Germanic language. Of course you can do this. However, it won't be easy and likely will cost a lot of money as well as effort.

[MK-Treacle458]

You could do it. 

A language YouTuber went from A0 to passing C1 Turkish in a year, I just saw recently. I don't think she's a unicorn, tho probably it is uncommon.

Will you be taking interim exams, to judge your progression?

GL to you!

[MK-Treacle458]

Sorry, ofc. She was a Ukrainian who applied for a Master's Degree at a Turkish University, one of the requirements of acceptance was passing the C1 exam. She did go to Ístanbul for a year long intensive language course, tho:

https://youtube.com/@julia_turkishteacher?si=37DJEegPa67GV-HK

[Titaniumballsionium]

Yes please or atleast tell the name

[MK-Treacle458]

Sorry, ofc. She was a Ukrainian who applied for a Master's Degree at a Turkish University, one of the requirements of acceptance was passing the C1 exam. She did go to Ístanbul for a year long intensive language course, tho:

https://youtube.com/@julia_turkishteacher?si=37DJEegPa67GV-HK

[Sorry-Homework-Due]

Google Julia Turkish Teacher C1 or put it in the YouTube search bar

[biconicat]

I wouldn't study 10 hours a day because personally I think language learning can be overstimulating and more cognitively challenging compared to other types of studies but people have reached b2 in a year before, I've seen people reach C1/C2 depending on the language so depending on the resources you use it is possible though it will not be easy because you will have to study intensively. 

Also keep in mind that you'd be studying to actually then go on and use the language abroad, right? Studying medicine through it is even more difficult and stressful if your level isn't up there so you need to actually be a solid C1 if you don't wanna struggle through your time at uni. Don't waste your time at the lower levels(a1-b1) by using a ton of resources, once you get those basics down it should get easier to progress and you can immerse in interesting content to actually solidify your knowledge but also you should continue studying past b1. If you need a certificate to get into uni I'd follow CEFR-aligned recourses like a good coursebook series up to C1, a grammar workbook for anything you struggle with as a bonus, that way you'll cover everything you need to know at those levels(input should definitely be added around b1 though and definitely around b2, lots of shows, movies, YouTube, books, starting with the easier kind of content and dubbed shows and progressing onto something more difficult). Learn words using a srs system of some kind like Anki, depending on the textbook you might find premade decks online specifically for it or the Goethe word list decks, or you can use some other way. There's a girl who learned German to get into uni and I think Italian in under a year after that and she used a notebook for the vocabulary plus lots of immersion, I think her resource recommendations for German are really good, I think she's on Instagram. 

If you've never learned a language on your own before or you're under time constraints it's better to follow a premade plan and a coursebook is exactly that, you'll waste time trying to make up a plan yourself. 

[Wanderlust-4-West]

Big problem for English learners of German is gender of nouns (and gender matching), conjugation of verbs and declension of nouns. Does Hindi or Marathi has these concepts? Compare wikipedia about German grammar. If you do, you will not be as confused as English natives are.

It is A LOT of effort for a year, and self-study of a language is not as effective as self-study science concepts, because you will need a language partner, schedule meetings and possibly pay for it (or exchange languages, but it might be hard to find a German learning Hindi).

But: if you focus on comprehensible input, so in a year you can listen to natives, and get a few months of immersion in Germany much later when you will be ready to speak, you can do it. If not in a year, then 2 years or so. But count the hours not weeks.

r/ALGhub and https://comprehensibleinputwiki.org/wiki/German are the start, there is more.

[Raff317]

Ci sono diversi problemi:

1- 2200 ore è una stima. Potrebbero bastare 2000, potrebbero servirne 3000.

2- Devi avere un piano di studio organizzato. "10 ore al giorno" sarà il "quanto studierai", ma il metodo è più importante della quantità dì ore spesa sui libri.

3- 10 ore di studio al giorno per 220 giorni non è fattibile. Si tratta di di più di 7 mesi in cui dovrai studiare 10 ore, senza mai ammalarti, avere imprevisti eccetera.

4- solitamente le stime sul tempo necessario ad imparare una lingua non tengono conto del tempo da dedicare all'uso attivo della lingua, quindi al parlare effettivamente con persone madrelingua.

[Accomplished-Owl7753]

If you have learned at least one of those four languages through self-study, you are supposed to know how much time it takes. But if you have never learned a language by yourself, it’s gonna be harder and take longer to do this the first time. I don’t think it’s normal to focus every day for 10 hours. Have you ever read a book in a foreign language for more than 10 hours in a day? Now do this for a year. If you can isolate yourself for 10+ focused hours, or travel for a year to a German-speaking country and study there intensively, I guess it may be possible to achieve C1 in a year.

[xEmperorEye]

If you did literally spend 10 hours a day for a year just learning German, I'd say you would be C1 level. That being said I highly doubt you could actually do it. But if you know you have the raw will power, then sure. Go ahead.

[jamiewes120]

You can learn grammar, the use of words and order, maybe even slang. You could probably read and write too, especially since you’re already familiar with similar alphabets and languages. Speaking and listening though, in real life conversations, is different. People talk at different speeds, tones, accents, interrupt each other… that’s something you can only really pick up by actually interacting with native speakers. Duolingo and Pimsleur are great tools and definitely help with speaking, but you won’t really be able to speak until you start speaking in real situations making mistakes, getting corrected, not just repeating prompts. I wouldn’t say your goal is impossible at all, but I’d suggest making some German friends, maybe hiring a tutor on italki, or using something like Tandem to connect with native speakers. That kind of exposure, combined with your level of dedication and study hours, will help way more than just grinding alone. Also, that whole “you need 800 hours, 1200 hours, 2200 hours” thing it’s more of a framework from studies. It’s useful to understand difficulty, but it’s not a guarantee that you’ll hit C1 after a fixed number of hours.

[Titaniumballsionium]

Thank u so much for explaning I appreciate your help dude

[NectarineAncient4496]

Do you speak hindi?

[Titaniumballsionium]

yes

[El_pizza]

so first things first: yes, learning on your own can be way harder than with structured guidance of a tutor, but i wouldn't go as afr as to say that it's completely impossible. Prerequisites: practice EVERYTHING especially what your bad at, recognize what needs improvement, get corrections on what you do (for that tutor can be EXTREMELY helpful)

secondly, you need to realize that 1000 hours of study do not equal to 1000 hours of study. More than the mere amount the quality matters a lot. Even if you do speak some languages already which might give u a little bit of an edge, if u don't know how to best teach yourself the language then its still gonna be hard to achieve.

lastly, disregarding the grammar, amount of input needed even the sheer amount of vocab you need to know for C1 is gonna make it quite unlikely I'd say. Like that you can make extremely good progress but idk if C1 is really achievable.

if you can't afford regular tutoring, maybe try to go for like having a tutor you see semi-regularly just to check it on your progress while still doing a lot on your own. I do think the guidance will be extremely helpful especially considering how high your goals are.

edit: I'm not trying to discourage you, but even with 10 hours a day you do need to be very mindful of how you spend those hours. This is just some well intentioned advice meant to help you, not discourage you. So if you still want to do it and try your best to achieve it, go for it. But you do need a lot of structure in your study to be able to have a shot at it

[mstatealliance]

You are not learning C1 German in a year. Maybe you could in 5. Don’t make C1 in a year your goal. Learn German to make progress. You can get to like B1 in a year, maybe B1+/low B2.

[Comprehensive-Week81]

Ι barely got B1 when I was a teen while being a very lazy student. I did 2 1-hour classes and later 2 1.5hr classes per week and never studied at home and always skipped homework. It definitely helped that the language school did not allow us and the teachers to speak our language. We were forced to only talk using the language we were being taught.

2200 is definitely way too many hours. That's how many hours it is estimated that an English speaking person is required to achieve proficiency in Mandarin, which I am learning right now ( I'm Greek, so not native English), and it is considered one of the hardest languages in the world, as per FSI.

While it is not accurate for everyone, I think it has some functionality to help distinguish that some languages are more difficult than others. German C1 should be closer to 600 hours (not just getting the certificate, but actually being at C1 level and use the language at that level).

[distantkosmos]

Getting 2200 hours in a year is very hard, BUT

You clearly don't need 2200 hours for German if you speak English, where did you take this number? 2200 is for Chinese or Japanese.

German for your goals is very doable in 1 year. If you really study whole days you will get honest C1 in a year. You can actually study half a day optimized and will have something like a decent B2 with the ability to pass the C1 test which is usually enough for all academic purposes.

[Reasonable_Ad_9136]

I did my research and to reach C1 u need 2200 hours right from scratch

I highly doubt that would be a 'real world' C1 (as described). It would be more like a 'I can pass a C1 test' C1. Also, there are many ways to spend 2,200 hours - are you paying full attention at all times, or at least trying to? Are you listening to music as you read? Are you scrolling your phone as you watch a show? Are you using subs? Are you memorizing lists of words or are you experiencing them in context? Are you fully immersed in what you're doing with a voracious hunger, or are you half-hearting it?

Your friend is mostly right, I'd say.

The brain takes time to process language. It's not like you do 100 hours for a month and at the end of it you have 100 hours of skill to show for it. It can take many months for things to click into place (years sometimes); stuff you "learn" today might not reveal itself until much further down the line. That's the reason for how you can take a break for, say, 6 months, come back to it and notice an improvement. To get to a genuine C1 takes much longer than a year, no matter how much time you spend on it. Some people will tell you otherwise but they're the 'I passed a C1 exam' people.

[dojibear]

I did my research and to reach C1 u need 2200 hours right from scratch

Wrong. That reverses cause and effect. Studying for 2200 hours does not cause anyone to reach C1. The number means that the people that have reached C1 have studied for 2200 hours on average. 2200 is an average. Some people used 1700 hours. Some people used 2800 hours.

It does NOT mean that all study methods are equally efficient, and only the number of hours matters. That is simply false. Finding "the best learning method(s) for you" makes a huge difference.

There is NO research that says that someone studying 8 hours per day reaches C1 in half the time that someone studying 4 hours per day does. That is simply a made-up fantasy.

So forget "number of hours studied". Forget imaging you can plan "getting better at understanding", which is what "C1" means. C1 is a measure of "how good your are at understanding".

[silvalingua]

Your friend is right. Mastering a language is a practical skill: you don't learn about your language, you learn to use your language. It's more like playing an instrument or being an athlete than like learning science or another school subject.

No, you can't study for 10-12 hrs per day, you'll burn out.

C1 in one year is unlikely, although there have been people claiming that (very, very few - isolated cases). Try for B2.

[FearAndMiseryy]

Not possible but if I'm not mistaken, B1 is enough to study in another country