You are going abroad to work in three months and you want to “brush up a bit”. The question: how much time is enough and what is realistic in that time?
The scale of a language’s difficulty
Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) and Germanic ones (English, Dutch, Swedish) are relatively close to Polish: you can reach conversational level in 3–6 months. More distant languages (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese) take at least 1–2 years.
What does “conversational” mean?
Conversational level (B1–B2) means: being able to talk about everyday matters, understanding at work without major problems, reading simple texts. It is not “fluency”: but it is enough to function normally.
3 months of intensive study
With 2 lessons a week with a tutor and daily practice (30 minutes a day) you can go from A0 to A2/B1 within 3 months, for European languages. That is enough for getting by, shopping and simple communication at work.
What to learn first?
For a work trip: industry vocabulary, polite phrases, numbers and dates. For emigration: compulsory bureaucracy (the office, the doctor, the bank). For studies: academic vocabulary and the ability to read scientific texts.
Will an intensive course replace tutoring?
A group course is cheaper but not very flexible. A tutor will adapt the material to your workplace, industry and the specific situations you will meet abroad: which has huge practical value.