When you learn a language do you work alone, in a group or with a tutor?

A practical linguistics course with SIL is a good preparation for learning any language. Even if you pay someone to teach you, they may not be able to explain to you why you're not saying it right.

My best experience at learning another language was in high school where I learned Japanese for four years. I find the group motivation provided in a classroom situation very helpful. I find that the students & teacher seem to motivate each other. I believe such a situation is better for me, being more complete & standardized than what I could find alone. I've noticed that the teacher draws upon many different sources & uses many resources in a far greater variety than I believe a solo effort on my part would. I'm not one to pick up languages easily, unfortunately. What's your experience, Urban?

I have tried learning alone using my computer and talking disks. I found it hard to progress very far with that. I had a Spanish course from September 2008 to February 2009. I was pregnant and my baby daughter was born in the summer of 2009. I had been too tired in my pregnancy with my daughter to continue with the evening course. I loved going to the evening course, made new friends and learned well in the group with the tutors input. The tutor came from Venezuela and taught European Spanish. Around Easter time I spent one month in South America. I traveled around with my disabled son and my daughter over there. I would love to start up again learning Spanish in a small group with a tutor.

I have learned languages in different ways. When I was in Estonia I listened to the conversation around me and after some months I was able to understand many of the common words and sentences. I was also able to express myself, but the Estonian grammar is difficult and I never learned to speak perfect Estonian. When I was living and working in Poland I learned Polish the same way, but it was very hard for me to pronounance the words. Some years ago I spent some time at a Danish/Japenese school in Denmark. I learned Japenese through the language lessons and through the interaction with the Japanese students. I have also learned languages on my own. I am trying to learn Russian at the moment. I have downloaded a programme where I read and listen to Russian sentences and when I have read/heard the sentenced have to find the right translation. I am also trying to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. I study the alphabet on my own and I try to memorize a couple of letters each day. I would like to take a Russian course at one of the local schools in my area, but that is too expensive so I have chosen to study on my own.

well, I would suggest the best thing to do is, to be around people who speak that language. mind will automatically pick up important words, and then one should start using them in daily life. try using small sentences in daily life. I can speak 5 languages easily, and this is the technique I used. and i really worked well for me. A tutor can't teach any language easily..

Actually the best way to learn any language from any country in my opinion is to be around people speak that language for at least one year..not joking it is real!!

In my case, I had learned the languages by my own, then I practice the language to the local people. I believed it will be more easier to know the language when you talk or make conversations with the people who knows the language. Good day!