Self-Study vs. Classes

'Sup /lang/.

Which is better when learning a foreign language? Self-Study or classes? Which do you prefer?

Classes, definitely. Unfortunately your choice of language and geographical location may mean there are none on.

Then again, I don't have the motivation to do things myself, maybe you do. But language classes are great for meeting cute young girls.

Japanese is the easiest learning language. Plus everyone has programs and learning material for it because of fucking poser Otaku Fans.

I learned/am learning Spanish with heavy self-study, and recently I have taken 2 classes. The classes helped alot, but I definately could have learned on my own still, because there are many Spanish speakers in my area, lots of Spanish everywhere, so I hear it alot and can practice alot. I learned Sign Language in a class, and I'd say it's definately better to do that; learning to sign from books/videos was nearly impossible for me, and I only had one deaf friend who I could learn from in person. So I'd day it depends on location/what's available to you/if you prefer to hear sound clips of pronunciation, or if you prefer to hear a teacher saying it.

Classes are a colossal failure.

Classes help a lot, especially with the speaking part.

Enjoy listening to your brain-dead classmates speak in horrible accents and despair when you find out they only learn 10 new words per day.

CLASSES

>>8
This man raises an excellent point.

I learned/am learning English with heavy self-study, and recently I have taken 2 classes. The classes helped a lot.
I definately could not have learned on my own, because there are few English speakers in my area.
So I have to find a place I can practice a lot, and I actually did.

You can learn reading and listening by yourself, but when it comes to speaking, it is nearly impossible.
Real speakers ask you unexpected questions, and that makes you find out your week points, what you have to go over again.

I learned Spanish in a class, and I'd say it's definately better to do that.
Learning verb reflections from books/DVDs alone was nearly impossible for me.
Besides, I had no Spanish speaking friend from whom I could learn in person.

So I'd say it depends on location, what's available to you, whether you can motivate yourself.
Self-study should be best prioritized on a daily basis while classes complete what you are missing.

>>10
Where are you from? Where I live you learn 90% of the English from television and video games and stuff.

I'm from Tokyo, Japan. And you?
Situation is nearly the same.
Where I live, you learn English from conversation schools which are super expensive, but I chose free stuff such as DVDs and CDs from a huge library, or TV programs.

Try learning Chinese from scratch with DVDs, CDs, and TV programmes. :P

Or Japanese, haha.

Classes give the guidance to the language as it's actually used, and it can help a lot, especially in the beginning.

I have been teaching myself Chinese for about 1 year and 2 months now. I can speak it pretty much fluently. I tried to take a Chinese class, they go WAY to fucking god damn slow. They suck at teaching and it's because fucking americans can't comprehend anything except spanish or wait a second. americans can't comprehend SHIT. They can't even speak their native fucking language correctly. Just look at the average sentence typed by an american, can't even spell anything correctly.
 Now for teachinig yourself, it's definitely better if you can handle it and want to progress faster, yes learning in a class helps you learn the accent and shit, but wtf. You don't need some bitch ass person to give you grades and shit to make you motivated to study. Study on your own and motivate yourself if you want to actually learn the fucking language. Find a friend on the internet chat room at www.icq.com they have basically every language and someone in there will be willing to teach you the language you want to learn for free. No need to pay $300 dollars or what ever the fuck you guys waste on classes.
 And for those Poser Fucking Japanese Poser Otaku fans. I'M SO SICK OF YOU, YOU'RE FUCKING RETARDS...POSERS.....YOU'LL NEVER BE JAPANESE. NEVER!!!!!  YOU'RE JUST A FUCKING AMERICAN WHO LIKE ANIME, NOTHING ELSE. STOP TRYING TO MAKE YOURSELF A JAPANESE PERSON, IF YOU REALLY WANTED TO BE JAPANESE YOU'D BE POLITE, RESPECT YOUR PARENTS, DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY, CLEAN YOUR FLOORS EVERYDAY, DON'T LITTER, RAPE SOMEONE(it's like saying hello), AND STUDY YOUR ASS OFF AND GET INTO A GOOD COLLEGE AND BECOME A DOCTOR OR SOMETHING. WTF I SERIOUSLY HATE, FUCKING NOT ONLY HATE, I DESPISE YOU FUCKING POSER OTAKU FAGS SOOOO MUCH.
 I seriously hope that each one of you kills yourself and slowing burns yourself in public starting from your feet down.

>>14
Lemme translate.

Nam lobortis metus vel ipsum. Proin urna orci, rutrum id, tincidunt at, rutrum non, ligula. Nulla massa est, interdum at, consequat sed, consectetuer id, sapien. Duis mauris turpis, porttitor non, semper non, elementum ut, erat. Donec cursus ligula sit amet diam. In volutpat pretium sem. Curabitur eu est. Nunc neque justo, sagittis quis, suscipit sit amet, sagittis at, diam. Proin a est. Nam nec magna. Suspendisse dui sem, suscipit sit amet, porttitor nec, sodales ac, nulla. Aliquam nonummy lorem sed neque aliquam hendrerit. Ut quis felis. Phasellus risus sem, ultrices non, consequat vel, egestas eu, tellus. Nullam tincidunt quam non odio. Aenean enim. Nam tincidunt hendrerit dolor.
 Donec iaculis. Nullam venenatis urna nec mi. Proin facilisis lorem ut orci. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Mauris elit nisl, sodales eget, consectetuer sed, euismod eu, quam. Donec nec mi. Suspendisse scelerisque urna. Pellentesque id dui. Donec libero. Etiam at metus ac tellus mattis fermentum. Ut condimentum interdum nunc. Donec vitae felis. Aenean facilisis pharetra eros. Praesent elit urna, aliquam nec, malesuada et, cursus at, ipsum. Nunc porta lorem nec nibh. Etiam ut augue.
 Nunc interdum interdum pede curabitur ut sapien vel ipsum varius consequat. NUNC SODALES TORTOR A PURUS. LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUER ADIPISCING ELIT. QUISQUE AT AUGUE A FELIS NONUMMY FRINGILLA. SED CONVALLIS METUS ID MASSA. SUSPENDISSE BIBENDUM, ERAT ET DICTUM PORTA, ENIM SAPIEN ELEIFEND SEM, AC SEMPER FELIS TURPIS VEL LOREM. VIVAMUS CONSECTETUER TURPIS VEL LIBERO. MORBI UT TORTOR. AENEAN MATTIS LACUS ID NEQUE. AENEAN ENIM TORTOR, BLANDIT A, DICTUM EGET, FERMENTUM A, ENIM. IN SODALES, TELLUS ET ALIQUAM LACINIA, MASSA LECTUS RHONCUS LEO, EGET FERMENTUM FELIS NULLA IN ORCI. UT ULTRICES, AUGUE AC TINCIDUNT ULTRICIES, MI ODIO HENDRERIT METUS, EGET CURSUS ELIT ELIT NEC IPSUM. SED NISI URNA, VESTIBULUM VITAE, INTERDUM AC, SAGITTIS UT, NISL.
 In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Curabitur adipiscing lectus in tellus scelerisque rutrum. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Thank you for translating >>14 into Latin, clearly useful to us all.

Schooling is something that stands in the way of Education.

Wow..

That guy sure hates Otakus.. His Asian girl friend must have left him for one or something.

Oh my good golly gosh, Im an American, and I havent failed to spell a single word wrong.

Except "Im" is not a word, rather it is a contraction and represents two words - I and am. The letter a is thus omitted and in its place there lies an apostrophe like so:

I'm.

Hey, you forgot one more to point out.
"havent" is not a word, rather it is a contraction and represents two words - have and not. The letter "o" is thus omitted and in its place there lies an apostrophe so:

havent -> haven't

"Now for teachinig yourself,"

I see a misspelled word.

i first learned english in highschool but i only became really fluent when I started visiting english chatrooms (that was 10 years ago and chatrooms still were new and exciting). right now i'm learning Japanese and have mastered it to the point where I can read a manga, for example, however I cannot speak for shit. gotta find some japanese chatrooms.

Thats not misspelling a word, thats just failing at grammar.

I like putting apostrophes in whenever I can.  I wish I could add more.  Aw, fuck, none yet...
It's a strange thing I can't, won't, shan't, and mustn't do!

Having experienced both classes and self-study, I must say that self-study is by far the best and fastest alternative, unless you have some sort of disability/no discipline. Classes are slow and tedious, and the fact that many people never read and then are asked to say something in class slows them down even more.

Also a tip to learning any language: Say everything out loud.

TL;DR: Self-study if you're not a complete retard.

>>12
I'm from The Netherlands. It's great that you got so far in the same way. I didn't knew it was possible because Japanese and English are so different, whereas Dutch and English are somewhat similar.
>>13
Yeah, it seems hard to me too. But >>12 is a native Japanese speaker and claims to have English learned that way. I think you can learn pretty much everything (not only languages) if you are able to educate yourself. If I would ever take a language course it would be either to learn it as fast as possible or to force discipline and make sure I won't get sloppy with studying.

I learned English and Japanese the same way.

I have done both self-study and classroom study. I honestly feel better in class. It's more convenient for monitoring vocal mistakes and it has a backbone of discipline. Its hard to do self-study if you know there are other things that need to get done or basically, a busy person. Once you step foot in the class, you have to slow down and go with the program. This way, you are forced to be more focused( for those that need it).

>>28
I found that there are some things that can only be learned in class, from a native teacher. But self-study proved to be more efficient for me.

Self-study is great as you can pace yourself however you want. A lot of language classes either go too slow or too fast. Classes are essential.

Also, I don't believe anyone can learn Chinese in 1 a year by themself, unless they hole themselves up in a room for a year and devote all their time to it (oh and you're Einstein). And even then, you'll fucking have no clue how to pronounce half the shit – there's all that tone/pitch stuff you've gotta figure out. Not to mention Chinese has no standard written form.

>>30
You do realize all of the issues you mentioned can be resolved by getting an internet connection, right?

>>30
You're not trolling us, are you?

>>32
He said "and devote all their time to it", not "and collect lots of porn"

>>30
>Not to mention Chinese has no standard written form.

What?

>>33
As >>34 noted.

>>34
It doesn't. The Chinese is still trying to resolve its problems with the language. Someone in west China will spell something, and it will be right, but someone else can spell it in east China, and it will be right also. It's how English was 600 years ago.

>>36
They haven't had that problem since the 50s. Now you either spell as they do in Beijing or wrong.

Learned German through classes, Spanish through classes, and Old English through self-study. Self study, I must say is better-paced and a good personal way to learn a language. Make sure to find someone who speaks it or look up the orthography for the language though. Pronunciation is key.

i'm learning chinese in college, the tone is so important, you have to hear it to say the word correctly. Like the word ma, it can mean mother, hemp, horse or scold depending on what tone you say it in.

>>39
That's the first thing they teach you so you are obviously a newfag at Chinese.