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Do Big Language Schools Work?

  Tags: Language School
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center Post Reply
10 messages over 2 pages: 1
basica
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 3296 days ago

157 posts - 269 votes 
Studies: Serbian

 
 Message 9 of 10
17 July 2015 at 2:34am | IP Logged 
I imagine what I will say is basically what everyone else has said but in different
words but nevertheless here's my take on it.

The difference between a good language course or school and self study is that the
school gives you motivation and inspires you to learn - it removes the massive
requirement of having a lot of self drive because the teacher/s basically get you
excited, keep you interested and keep you going. This makes the learning process much
easier and feel like there is less work. When you self study, everything is dependent
on you. You have to find the drive within yourself and find material that keeps you
interested and keeps you going.

The problem is that a lot of teachers don't take responsibility for keeping you going
and instead rather leave it up to you, which in the end makes it no different than
learning by yourself. In fact it tends to be worse because you waste time travelling
to and from classes and spending a lot of time on things where you are not directly
learning something.

I have been both the motivated and unmotivated student with an average teacher and
I've found that's the difference in one's results when dealing with an average teacher
- your own personal motivation. I had German for several years in high school and
hardly remember anything except for the numbers and a couple of greetings. I took some
classes for Japanese and I taught myself to read hiragana and katakana the following
day after our first lesson, but most students were struggling with them even by the
end of our course 1 year later.

So, if you struggle with motivation, you're in a pretty bad spot as self study and
schools are probably not going to help you generally, if you are motivated they will
probably hold you back if anything. That's my 2 cents.
1 person has voted this message useful



issemiyaki
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 4789 days ago

38 posts - 58 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French

 
 Message 10 of 10
17 July 2015 at 7:00am | IP Logged 
Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

I'm a pretty intense language learner when I want to be. So, for now, I will stick with
Assimil and the other resources I'm using.

I'm headed back to graduate school this September, so I'll be sure to bug the people in
the French and German departments for the best resources. I'm pumped.

Thanks!
1 person has voted this message useful



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