Self-Study vs. Classes

'Sup /lang/.

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

In my opinion it depends on the time you wish to spend and how burned up are you on the subject.

If you don't have a die-hard interest in the subject or you're just plain slow. A class will work best for you. Since it will take the subject at a leisure pace.

If you're someone who has learned several languages prior and you basically know how to learn fast, classes will bore you to hell and back because of the turtle-like paste.

As an example, it took me roughly 3-4 days until I got myself to a point where I could easily read a newspaper with just a dictionary in Swedish. My friend went to classes, it took him 3 months to do the same thing.

Self-study is how I learned English. I consider myself to be a fluent speaker in it and I reached this point far faster doing it via self-study then I would have if I went to learn it in a class. Not to mention the accent of pure awesomeness I developed. English was also my 5th language that I became fluent in, I wouldn't have the time to waste if I was doing it in a class.


In short,

From personal experience. I could say, that any language is best learned via self-study, especially if you have someone to speak to in the language you're learning. But that only applies to the people who have a maniacal or a die-hard interest in the subject.