Skip your language classes – they are a massive waste of your time and money. If you want to learn a language quickly and efficiently, then learning by yourself is far superior.
Firstly, there is the time spent travelling to and from the class, unpacking your things, waiting for the teacher to arrive and for the class to properly begin. Once this ordeal is over, the lesson itself usually consists of the teacher, who is a native speaker if you’re lucky, briefly giving instructions for various speaking exercises and then sending you off to discuss with a partner or in groups.
The exercises involve speaking with other non-native speakers, usually answering questions and formulating sentences you are not yet linguistically qualified for. Thus all of the students share their mistakes in a big cauldron of linguistic garbage. You are forced to speak above your current level, thereby reinforcing the mistakes further. The teacher has a hard job as they have to cater to students of different levels, which is massively inefficient for everyone.
But nobody ever learned a language through their tongue. We learn through our ears.
Furthermore, the only native speaker in the room is usually the one doing the least talking. It’s all about you doing the talking. You’re the one that wants to learn to speak, after all! But nobody ever learned a language through their tongue. We learn through our ears. The teacher would be better off speaking and telling exciting or funny anecdotes from their life, explaining difficult words as they go and taking short breaks to write grammar on the blackboard, all while keeping it as low-pressure as possible. As soon as you put yourself under pressure your mind tenses up and you can forget about learning anything.
I would say a minimum of 1,000 hours is necessary to reach decent fluency.
The quantity of vocabulary and idiomatic usage you need to learn, and the number of hours you need to be in contact with the language is simply too much for a classroom context. I would say a minimum of 1,000 hours is necessary to reach decent fluency. Assuming you are a diligent learner spending 3 hours of classroom time plus an extra hour of individual study every single week without fail, this would take you 5 years to achieve! What’s more, the classroom hours will be suboptimal so 1,000 hours for basic fluency is probably being generous.
I would like to put in a caveat here. Classes can be worth it. If you have a personal instructor who knows what they’re doing, teaching you individually or in a small group, then this can be a useful supplement to your learning. They can help answer questions you may have about the language or explain specific difficult grammar points to you. They can also provide you with natural exposure to the language in a relaxed environment. If they are able to do this, then they are a valuable resource, but typical language classes that you pay extortionate amounts for are trash and should be avoided at all costs.
So what should you do instead? In short, become your own teacher. Study diligently, carefully and efficiently. Maintain high levels of motivation. Keep your learning fun. Avoid mistakes at all cost. Don’t speak until you are ready. Prioritise input over output. Study every day. Spend thousands of hours with the language.
Just don’t go to classes, ok? They are counterproductive to all of these essential elements of learning, and quite simply, they don’t work.