American diplomats face a harsh choice: become fully fluent in German (or similar) in less than a year without living in the country - or overthrow your life plans and take a big salary cut until you succeed. I have coached a significant number of these diplomats on their way to the life-changing exam. I have also worked with Japanese nuclear engineers, French businessmen, British society ladies and others who each had their own reasons for wanting to learn a language. Some of them had concrete deadlines such as an exam or a trip, others were just sick of not making any progress.