How I learned English in a year — without studying
The approach that made me fluent in English and kickstarted my design career
Immersion learning is one of the most powerful skills I've ever picked up — the kind that quietly changes everything you touch. Once you get it, you can apply it to almost anything: a language, a craft, a career shift.
For me, it started with English, but the mindset has shaped every big leap since.
An effortless breakthrough
It began in 2017, when a new friend sent me a few American YouTube channels he was watching — almost unheard of in my country for people my age. I clicked, and instantly thought: Oh. This is so much better.
That spark matters.
Back then, I was stuck at the B1/B2 plateau — eight years with a tutor, English at school, even a year in a private language school. The level where you barely pass exams, freeze in conversations, carry a noticeable accent, forget words mid-sentence, and can't really understand anything beyond grammar books.
But that spark (and a bit of motivation to impress my friend) was enough to push me forward. I started replacing my entire YouTube feed with English content, one category at a time, until nothing else was left.
By early 2018, I'd moved on to podcasts, which opened up a whole new way to consume media. Then came switching my social feeds to English, tracking down the rare English-only events in my city, and finally — the big leap — moving my entire university course into an English-language group halfway through my degree.
It finally hit. Why?
I wasn’t studying at all — I just replaced what I was already doing — videos, podcasts, books, social — with the English version and kept going.
A year later, I was comfortably at Advanced. I was talking, listening, and thinking in English as my default. And because it felt so natural, it almost felt like cheating. It made me feel like anything was possible.
From Languages to Design
Even now, most people I know — including those in international and truly native-English companies — still struggle with the plateau I broke through back then. That breakthrough gave me the confidence to jump into tech, design, and startups, to collaborate globally, and to keep learning by doing. The jump from languages to design was almost seamless.
Start before you feel ready, adapt fast, and let the environment shape you.
The same mindset made it natural to explore a new craft — in 2018, I began taking small volunteer and part-time design projects. That led to my first role at a leading design agency in my city, and soon after, becoming the first designer at an early-stage startup (later backed by Palta, the team behind Flo), where I owned the entire design process from scratch.
Languages are just one example. You can learn almost anything this way. At first, it's overwhelming — you only catch half or less of what's going on and your brain feels fried. But then something clicks: you start filling in the gaps automatically, and suddenly you're just… doing it.
Today
I’m still at Palta now, working as a product designer owning projects end-to-end and learning constantly in real time. That same immersion approach — the one that got me fluent in English — gives me confidence to tackle new challenges before I feel ready, pick up tools as I need them, and close gaps fast.
Get the essentials, learn by doing, and stay flexible enough to change course.