When do you know if you have mastered English?

Here’s a question to think about. When can you consider you have mastered English?

Is it when you pass that B2 or C1 exam or when you can manage yourself really well in an job interview in English?

It’s a really tough question to answer because some people think as long as they can get by ( defenderse) that’s enough and others aren’t happy until they can speak English better than most native speakers. So there are conflicting ideas!

What I learnt from a really interesting book called ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell was the idea of the 1000 hours rule. The basic idea of the book is that people who mastered certain skills took 1000 hours to perfect their craft. In the book he explains how The Beatles took a 1000 hours to perfect their art , Bill gates a 1000 hours to build an empire

That made me think.1000 hours !!!!!!! That’s about 24 hours a week for the next 10 years

I guess if you are like me, you haven’t got a spare 20 hours a week to practise English ( or anything for that matter!)

However, another great book ‘The 4 hour Chef’ Tim Ferris explains instead of?focusing on the top 0.01 % of a given skill you are better to focus on being part of the best 5 %

These type of people are people who started with no knowledge but ended up (finished ) as experts in their field but by a combination of focused work?and ?good coaching

So I guess as I can’t find those 20 hours a week for 10 years to build an empire bigger than Bill Gates , I’ll stick to becoming an expert in far less time……The how ? I’ll move onto that in another article

I’d love to see your opinions below, when do you feel you really have mastered English?