Improvements in English after one year

[Catho230]

Hey everybody,
I´ve got a question for all those people who have spent a year (12 months, not more or less) in
an academic environment in England due to study reasons. I have been in England for 4 weeks now, and I am doing
an English course to prepare for University studies in September.
I meet a lot of people here who have already been here for 6-9 months, and their English is literally horrible. That´s astonishing and makes me worry a lot.
Ok, I have to admit that I mostly see those mentioned students chatting with their fellow countrymen which doesn´t help to improve your english at all.
Anyway, is there anyone having experience in how the "average" improvement in english SPEAKING usually is after a year at University in UK?
Please mind some "definitions" regarding this issue:

- living on University campus with international and british students
- NEVER using my own native language when speaking with fellow countrymen (in my case Germans)
- joining social activities like sports clubs, clubbing to meet british students

I think this pictures my current living situation pretty well. Looking forward hearing some of your comments!!

Greetz, Catho

[Keswick]

Well I cannot tell you about the improvement after spending a year on a campus, however I work in an international company with English people as well as Germans, Italians, Spanish, Chinese, Finnish and many more nationalities. So maybe it is a bit comparable to a campus .

I would say after one year you should be able to speak fluently and you should be able to follow a conversation of native speakers. You should also be able to understand puns, you should know colloquial terms as well as some characteristics of the local dialect.

Fact is, as you have mentioned yourself, you can't learn English without speaking with the natives. But I think I know why many students or foreigner don't dare.. when I first came to England I thought the natives might laugh at me when I make mistakes. So I spoke to foreigners, knowing that they would not make fun of me because they make mistakes themselves. It took me a 6 months before I dared to talk to natives in a pub or a shop. Why? Simply because I was embarrassed. Embarrassed about the fact that I could not fully express myself and embarrassed that I could not fully follow the local dialect.