Should you self-study a language or take classes?

Hey guys! Ahh, the age old question for language learners… Should you go down the self-study route or the taking-classes route? In this video I discuss the pros and cons of each to help you make a decision better.I talk about my experiences, motivation, online classes, offline classes, resources and more. I hope it answers some of your questions!Let me know in the comments how you prefer to study languages!
Note: Lingoda sprint entries have now closed.
💕BOOKS I USE
Practical Chinese Grammar → geni.us/Practi...
Japanese for Busy People on Amazon → geni.us/Japane...
Advanced Japanese for Busy People → geni.us/Japane...
Korean Grammar in Use Intermediate → geni.us/Korean...
Korean TOPIK exam prep → geni.us/TOPIK2...
Short Stories in Spanish → geni.us/spanis...
---
💕 LINKS
Insta → / lindiebotes
Join my free newsletter → landing.mailer...
Website → lindiebotes.com/
Twitter → / lindiebee
Support my content & get resources → buymeacoffee.c...
Book a coaching call → superpeer.com/...
Medium blog → / lindiebotes
Merch → society6.com/l...
All language resources → lindiebotes.co...
✨EBOOKS & DISCOUNTS
📖 Language Habits ebook → www.buymeacoff...
📖 Writing in a new language ebook →www.buymeacoff...
Favorite textbooks → www.amazon.com...
$10 free italki credits after $20 spend→ www.italki.com...
Language app discounts → lindiebotes.com...
Learn a language for free in your browser with Toucan → jointoucan.com...
10% off Du Chinese (my favorite app!) enter LINDIE10 at checkout → www.duchinese....
💕ABOUT
Welcome to my channel! My name is Lindie and I share my love for languages and design on this channel. I'm a senior product designer and co-founder of Kaards.io. I also write blog posts about languages at lindiebotes.com, and mentor language learners, and offer UX consulting for language apps at superpeer.com/lindiebotes. I'm a Christian and strive to shine God’s light in all I do. May this channel inspire you to reach your language goals and learn more about design.
New here? Best videos → • Recommended videos
FAQ → lindiebotes.co...
🎥EQUIPMENT
Camera → geni.us/CanonP...
Mic → geni.us/RodeSm...
Tripod → geni.us/Manfro...
---
Enquiries & partnerships: [e-mail]

[@zefirnaya6238]

I dislike language classes bc they feel way too slow. Here’s an example. 6 years of studying English at school got me to something between a1 and a2. 6 months of self-studying brought me all the way to b2. I’m not even kidding. The difference is THAT huge. I got to French a1 in a month or two of VERY slow-paced self-studying. We’re talking 30 minutes a day here and not even daily. All of the language classes are designed to be fit for the majority of learners, but if you’re truly passionate about a language you’re not really in the majority, are you?

[@renidere]

Marina Cake this is because in language classes, most of the time they either don’t teach it properly and conventionally, or they teach slowly so others who are behind can catch up. When you self-study, you’re able to tell exactly when you want to move on and where you should go to. In a class, you have to wait for the class to move on with you, and you have to follow the lesson plans that are already there

[@gracesorensen3173]

😱 you write like a native English speaker! So amazing!😊

[@thalblankson4002]

@@renidere Yes true. They go too slow for me and the teacher's can't teach.

[@zefirnaya6238]

Grace Sorensen omg, thank you so much! Your reply just made my day ^ω^

[@zefirnaya6238]

Tonika I watched a ton of tv shows and movies in English. I started with double subtitles (rus, my native language + eng). Once I started understanding at least half of what was going on on the screen, I got rid of the Russian subtitles. Then I turned off subtitles all together. KZbin helped me a lot as well. Any content creator with well subbed videos works here. Since there aren’t too many opportunities to practice English in Russia, I started recording myself speak with my phone. It’s like an audio diary of sorts, but in English. It’s ok to talk to yourself sometimes. Especially if you’re learning a new language :)

[@eerokaartokangas]

I personally self study always, but I understand why some people would like to take classes

[@shakedshina6030]

Me too..

[@user-sp4vr1sf4c]

Eero Kaartokangas I am from jinhua, zhejiang province, studying in jiangxi university of finance and economics. I can teach you the most authentic mandarin. I am also very interested in spoken English

[@TaelurAlexis]

Chet Dude Lmaooooo

[@obama7325]

Eero Kaartokangas i am very lazy and procrastinate a lot so i kinda need a structure

[@jacklee9628]

me too

[@valoer]

Definetly a mix up. If you're devoted, you can achieve it by yourself and use classes for checkups

[@Ryosuke1208]

I agree, I study by myself french and take an online class with a native french teacher for questions, checkup and other stuff.

[@illyuminetran6060]

Just to say when i took my french class 3 years ago. It might not help much because i noticed i made the progress myself. But among languages i ve learnt, the ones i have classes are more fluent. So i guess if we combine both, we will get the language best

[@LindieBotes]

Absolutely right. It's definitely a combination of as much input we can get!

[@haninelzr8878]

Actually I like studying language at my own pace .

[@robertalexanderjamessanche8452]

Sameee, what language are you learning?

[@Cocknbaws]

Same​ XD

[@Arciwiz]

@@robertalexanderjamessanche8452 Judging from the commenter's profile picture, it might be Japanese.

[@RockDavid]

WHen people start a sentence with "Actually" is always a fun person to walk away from :)

[@uamdbro]

I could see the benefit of classes when you are a complete beginner with the language, but I think after a certain point, there is only so much you can get from a class and you have to do the rest of the work on your own.

[@melaniesyx]

I do the opposite. When I'm a complete beginner I only do self study cuz I don't really need a teacher to teach me pronunciation and grammar. When I'm intermediate I take small group classes so I can start practicing speaking more. When I'm upper intermediate I take private lessons to maximise my oral practice.

[@marcosantonio-ub1jv]

the "You do you" part was so funny haha

[@LindieBotes]

My favorite part to edit 🤪😂

[@animelife2484]

Oh you have a LingoDeer plush toy!!! かわいい

[@milkcatdog394]

Jack Lee really?? I didn’t know ! :-0 so cool

[@jordansarkisian]

I love self studying, classes always feel too rigid and slow tho I do appreciate the constant "here's what you have to do, get it done" everyday type vibe. Sometimes my personal schedule is more pliable when i'm in charge of it, but then sometimes I can grind ahead way further than classes would allow so there's pluses and minuses. I'm also lucky in that I picked Korean as my 2nd language and there seems to be no shortage of resources, tho sometimes the resources conflict and i'm left a little confused. (like 2 places using different words for the same thing...or even 3 different words) It'd be nice to have just 1 rock solid vocab list to go off of, even had a 600 word TOPIK vocab list, first word I checked someone told me only Koreans would use that word for description not a foreigner lol why is it in there then if I can't use it. Overall tho i'm loving learning a language, super satisfying kinda feels like i'm putting an endless puzzle together:)

[@renidere]

Jordan Sarkisian I agree, I’m taking a French class and was struggling greatly all year, but the first day I started self studying, I learned more than I did the first 2 weeks of my class! And I’m a bit impatient and usually look for immediate gratification, so the class doesn’t help much when I want to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible

[@LinguaSerbia]

I'm self-studying several languages and as a feedback I use comments; I write a comment or answer in that language and someone will tell me if I made a mistake and correct me. They'll also explain it if they know how to. My motivation is one of the main problems because it comes and goes in vawes. I have to self-discipline myself and be persistent.

[@wasthatweird1102]

If you're not attending classes then there is less motivation because you are not under pressure. ....BUT FOR ME THE LACK OF PRESSURE AND ENJOYING AT YOUR OWN PACE IS FAR MORE BETTER THAN ANY competitive environment.👍

[@CC-ue5up]

THIS IS ACCURATE

[@martinemussies]

For me, the combination of lessons (with a book and a teacher), self study and DuoLingo works best. ☺️💜 As there are no Polish courses in my area, I study every week with my friend, who is a native speaker of Polish. But after watching your video, I will check out Lingoda sprint! ☺️

[@oliwia5277]

oh, you are studying polish. as a native polish i can tell you it'll be hard, because even i have problems sometimes, hope you will get better! good luck

[@sambros2]

@@oliwia5277 Chopin :)

[@Celtravels]

I wish I could self study, classes just come with more motivation and its always awesome to get into conversations with people which you can't when you're on your own.... Wish I could muster up the motivation to study by myself ㅜㅜ

[@CrisOnTheInternet]

Which language are you learning?

[@Celtravels]

@@CrisOnTheInternet learning korean, I went to a uni in korea before but now that Im back home its hard to motivate myself

[@obama7325]

셀이야기 just don’t set goals that are too ambitious just promise yourself you’ll do 20 minutes a day and once you start you might continue

[@jensenachilles2766]

@@Celtravels I agree. I never get bored studying with a person or in a class but when self studying, I can barely manage 15 minutes without getting distracted or getting lazy :(

[@Celtravels]

@@jensenachilles2766 totally feel you ;( Ive actually found an online class from a university now, maybe theres one you could attend too?

[@slaine3166]

Not even to talk about Self studying language, if we apply that aspect to any of other subjects, it is technically and should be possible for any individuals to study by themselves. Strictly speaking, people are basically paying for others like school or other similar institution to teach them "verbally" of what is written on their textbook, except few of their insightful knowledges. After acknowledging in that, I think it is up to individuals to utilize the materials on the internet. These days you should be able to learn by yourself through internet because of its various sources. As for anybody who have taken language classes before, you would know that the ordinary pattern that repeats throughout the lessons are pretty much memorizing vocabularies and reading textbooks. On the other hand, the final goal of learning language is really speaking and communicating with natives. There are a lot of other elements you cannot learn through just textbooks. How to catch cultural phrases, the nuances of using words are all included in that during communication. Those are only earned through actually communicating with natives, which is impossible for most of the language learners. There comes the internet. Through internet, you have a lot of opportunities to listen what are natives speaking in various media forms. Listening takes a huge amount of part for learner to understand the context of the language. Through that, you will learn numerous different cases of speaking. The more you listen, the better you speak. It goes the same to the reading and writing. The more you read, the better you will be able to write stories because of diverse experiences you will be reading. If we are genuinely capable of self-learning anything, we wouldn't have to go to the school. Everything that you want to learn is included in the textbook and internet. You just have to maintain making an effort to learn everyday little by little.

[@ebiisland1682]

“Teachers will supply you with resources” Teachers: *Genki*

[@renidere]

Ebi Island my teacher: *textbook, kahoot*

[@lucillem7706]

Taking classes is lovely but I want to learn Tahitian and currently live in Sweden so self-taught it is!

[@jacobgasser3093]

Here I was thinking I was gonna get to watch my favorite language KZbinr and turns out it is just a premiere 😭😭😭

[@LindieBotes]

It'll be live in a few hours! Come back then!

[@stefantrandafir1099]

@@LindieBotes it says it's gonna be live in 23 hours...

[@jacobgasser3093]

@@LindieBotes dw I will :>

[@ziezero]

As a filipino whose tagalog is my native language, I’m honestly -idk how to exactly word it but, flattered that you find our language interesting to include it in your learning ~ thank you for the tips tho! Really love your videos 💕

[@estefaniaapaza4122]

I want to learn tagalog by myself but I don't know where I should start 😭

[@jamesdee862]

@@estefaniaapaza4122 the alphabets are as is. Learn a few words and some sentence structures (grammars, verb tenses, etc). The rest is up to you.

[@fiezannaidrus7378]

@@estefaniaapaza4122 heyy there, I've just started learning Tagalog about 1-2 months back. I couldnt find much resources online for self-studying so I got myself a tutor and we do like online lessons at a flexible time. You might want to try that out too?

[@biancabrum4747]

Please, make a desk tour!

[@LindieBotes]

On it! 🤓✨

[@jacobgasser3093]

YOUR HAIR OMG IT WAS SO WORTH THE WAIT. AND THOSE BEAUTIFUL GRAPHICS OHHHH

[@brendon2462]

Well, no native speaker acquired their native speaking skills formally in a class room. They acquired it through massive input. At home with tv, movies, music exc. Listening to others and repeating.

[@melaniesyx]

Immersion is very important for sure, but for most people learning a second language is still very different from acquiring their native language.

[@theyoungdisciple2925]

You're my favourite language youtuber ❤❤❤

[@skatergirl081894]

I started learning Spanish 9yrs ago in high school and since high school I have been self studying and using Spanish speaking friends to practice conversations. I am now learning Japanese I am using a mixture of Busuu app, KZbin and printable worksheets for my to practice writing in Hirahana and katakana.

[@diariosdelextranjero]

¿Y ahora cómo te va?

[@llamingo696]

なに

[@lindavel43]

I suggest getting a one month Free subscription to scribe. When you do a search you can set it to PDFs and tons of PDF books and resources! I downloaded many and printed them out. I am doing the Kanji one.

[@kennia6041]

I’m going to try taking a Korean class in summer, but I’m going to start self studying on my own for now. :)

[@meimae_]

I took classes in the hopes of getting more speaking and listening practice, but instead it set me back so much from my intended goals. Will stick to self studying and might try language partners instead.

[@maitequijada5173]

I LOVE your videos but I love your vibes even more! You really inspire me. Thank you so much for creating this content

[@thalblankson4002]

I have a friend who can read, write, and understand Korean all of it but can't speak it for nothing. I am the same with Mandarin. So I need to practice speaking more but need to find to do it. So either this summer or next summer am going to a language school that has a Mandarin intense immersion program which is for 8 weeks. Then I work and save up money next I will go to China for maybe 3 or 4 years.

[@wangyuexing]

I mostly self study, but I have an italki lesson once a week to check what level am at, my pronunciation, and it’s nice to talk to a native speaker and ask questions that you may not get online.

[@monsieurded6768]

I took a quick look at your resources and Spanish and found that you didn't have two very amazing resources! Try out Wordreference.com and Linguee.com. Wordreference.com is an online dictionary on STEROIDS complete with a forum so you can ask any question pertaining to grammar or vocabulary use. Linguee.com is another site I use when I'm not sure how to put a certain phrase together. It will search the internet for articles using keywords that you put into the search engine and find other examples of places that phrase is used. They're both super useful. It's exciting seeing you learn Spanish! You do so well. Also, I always hoped you'd make a video about the various types of media and entertainment you consume during your various language learning endeavors. I'm studying Korean right now and would love to see some of the music, movies, and TV shows you enjoy! ^^

[@RedMoe51]

I think it depends on what you seek. If you seek effectiveness and acquire the language asap, self-study all the way. In my case, I have been taking russian classes for 3 years twice a week. I enjoy the classes, interacting with other students and casually doing my homework. I am an intermediate level student but no rush, for me it's about the journey and the joy and happiness of learning a language. Тише едешь - дальше будешь!!

[@emanirenee]

I literally couldn’t force myself to self study anymore after a month so I’m hoping to take actual lessons soon! 😭

[@jerstumc5033]

How pityful and feeble

[@azraaydn737]

Lindie when it thundered your room looked so cozy

[@moodvibesreader]

I like to use a mix of both. I like the push and interaction I get from classes but then I also like to go at my own pace with self-study.

[@GunterCosplay]

I just discovered your channel since I'm studing japanese by myself during the quarantine and I really really Love it. If anyone is learning spanish or maybe Catalan (since it's my mother-tongue) and would like to chat a little or to test their skills I'd love to help. It's been really useful for me when I was doing it with english and now with japanese.

[@kokochanneru]

Thank you for the webside, it will be really helpful ^^

[@paulwalther5237]

I think it’s great to start with classes and learn all the basic grammar in a class. I really like having a syllabus or agenda that having a class gives you. It worked really well for my Japanese. I doubt I would have learned Japanese if it were self studied from the beginning. I know people are different and I think I can self study Korean having gone through Japanese now but I like making friends and classes are a good way to do that too.

[@unpopulardollsdontreadrepl8453]

Taking classes help you learn the grammar and solidify the basics..it is better to have it before you self-study.

[@jasminedubois6711]

I self study. Mainly because I don't enough money for online classes and because I'm really shy.

[@willlexie]

I will take a class for basic (or until intermediate) then self-study. So I can have more people to create friendship/environment of that language. Especially if the class was held by the embassy. there will be so many cultural events that I can participate in.

[@ilovemyaccent5925]

As for me I love having language exchange partners. I'm so lucky, I have so many teacher friends all around the world and it's so motivating when they are just as dedicated as you :)) So I prefer self studying as well, and then we talk with my friends on the weekend, so I can practice with native speakers as well. And I share some videos on my studygram once in a while, that also helps me practicing speaking. Once you start recording it just changes everything :D It's my favorite method right now.

[@rydazz1]

VRChat is a great place to learn languages

[@Gamebred-Nightmare]

*CHHQQQQQSSKKK* Spits

[@montblanc303]

I would love lingoda to have more languages available 🥰

[@youstupefy]

I prefer taking lessons rather than only self studying because they keep me motivated and I can't fall behind. I feel like I could do self studying for certain languages but I'm currently learning Mandarin Chinese and having a teacher is incredibly helpful.

[@davidtice4972]

I took 18 classes of Spanish, I took 3 classes of Italian and a private French class. I also went to two French speaking churches listening to the services in French. My car is a language lab. on wheels. I always listen to French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Spanish in my car.

[@DopeCantonese]

I prefer to learn online because it will be more systematical. But I prefer to self-study when I am learning Thai. Because every one around me could be my teacher. ☺️ And there is a good way to motivate your language learning. It is to watch lots of polyglots' video and subscribe lots of language lovers' instagram.

[@thalblankson4002]

I would say both. For me both work. Study in class and home alone.

[@dg7438]

That's why I got a tutor once a week using verbling while I self study..motivation and pronunciation and idioms

[@HelioScudeiro]

Em países como Brasil é uma questão cultural estudar em salas de aula, receber um diploma após centenas de horas de estudo, independente de ter aprendido algo ou não, parece que por aqui um pedaço de papel é sinônimo de dominar certo conhecimento seja ele qual for. Se alguém tem seu curriculo analisado por alguém e há afirmação de que é fluente em certo idioma, ou a pessoa diz que fala japonês, logo virá a pergunta: mas em qual escola você estudou/estuda?!? Como assim? Não posso ter aprendido sozinho? Não posso ser um poliglota autodidata?!!?! Mas também há a questão motivacional, preguiça de fazer sozinho, falta de experiência em montar um esquema de estudo, respeitar horários pra estudo, enfim, cada um deve ter o direito de escolher e ter seu conhecimento reconhecido, independente da forma com a qual adquiriu o idioma. Abraço, love you!!!!

[@TheDreathen]

When I started Mandarin Chinese I began with a 12 week intro course that was classroom based and ended with entry to take a HSK1 exam. Of the 20 or so of us that began, 4 dropped out, and a further 8 opted to not take the exam because they didn't feel personally ready. The rest of us did however! Anyway - after this experience I went self taught for the last year and I've found my motivation is really waning at times to keep up with it. That and I keep getting distracted by my other language love of Japanese! My biggest hold back is nerves when speaking to native speakers otherwise I would take to the streets and meet people instead!

[@evevl9891]

I have been learning English at an academy for nearly 8 years ( I started when I was 6 years old ). I have very good experience with the lessons and all, they taught me good basics and gave me a foundation so I could build up later myself if I wanted too. Mostly my English is improved by watching youtube videos from English speaking youtubers but without the help of the lessons I previously had at the academy I don’t think that I would be able to learn as well. My English is not perfect in any means but through my experience, I think a combination of two ( both self-study and taking classes ) is the best. My speaking skills wouldn’t be existing at all without all the interactions with my native teachers.

[@RedRoseOfDawn]

Thank you Lindi. I will take a look and maybe I try to improve my Korean. I don't know why, I can't pass the inicial level. I'm actually studying inglish now xD Gracias Lindi!! Me lo miraré y quizá aprovecho para mejorar mi coreano ya que me cuesta mucho salir del nivel inicial!!

[@Tehui1974]

I do both. Self-study is where I expose myself to input (reading & listening) in my target language. I treat the classes as check points where I get to practice output and go over finer points of grammar. The classes are also great (depending on how the classes are taught) for learning the customs and practices in a language that you can't learn on your own.

[@reinanaggi]

OMG i'm considering this since I want to take JLPT N3, but I've only taken N5 in 2016 lol. (I watch Japanese shows without subtitles though, and I'm able to understand the big picture of the conversations) My old japanese language teacher adviced me to take a small N4 test first and if the result isn't that bad, then I can take the lesson for N3. But if I failed the smal N4 test, I really want to just study by myself to take the real N4 test.

[@klara7121]

I love self-studying! I started self-studying Korean and realized I was doing it a little bit wrong at first (Wrong methods, focused too much on grammar and didn't practice enough). But now I also study Mandarin and Vietnamese at home and it works really well once you know what method is good.

[@isabella.ferreira]

How are you studying Mandarin? I really want to learn but I’m so lost on where to begin😅

[@klara7121]

@@isabella.ferreira First I would watch a video about the tones and some of the pronunciation maybe. These are important basics. Then learning some basic characters is necessary. I think writing them is not too important at first but knowing them would be good. I think some textbooks may have good lessons that introduce you to Mandarin and you could follow their order. Personally, I don't have a textbook (I would like to have one though) and study with my mobile phone only. There are a lot of good KZbin channels like Everyday Chinese or Yoyo Chinese that teach Mandarin grammar & vocabulary. I started with the Yoyo 300 series on KZbin where she teaches the most common characters and I really recommend having a look at it first. She also has an introduction to tones and pronunciation on her channel. Also there are a lot of good apps for Chinese ex. LuvLingua. Duolingo can also be useful additionally but I wouldn't use it as my main resource. The last thing that is really important: Look for a native speaker or a study buddy, so that you can help each other. There are a lot of apps like HelloTalk or HiNative where you can communicate with native speakers or people who also learn Chinese. You can get a lot of practice by that.

[@isabella.ferreira]

BTS Love Yourself thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my question. This helped me a lot and I will definitely apply your advice to my Chinese learning. I really appreciate it! 😊

[@bluecandies]

I've always wanted to try the lingoda sprint but I wish they offered it in other languages, hopefully in the future 💜

[@Ryyza7]

If you think the pace is too slow, you can take class from italki professional teacher and set your own pace.. they are the best but bit pricey..

[@SparkyFace5]

I self study and take advantage of comprehensible input at home AND I take a weekly language class. The language class is slower and often behind my level but has great advantages of helping to solidify already learned things, especially grammar, gives insight and clarification, immediate correction, and most important seeking practice, chalanges that are different to what I would choose at home, and making friends who are also learning the language.

[@lindavel43]

I feel that I do better with self study. So many resources online these days. I ask my Japanese friends questions when I'm stuck on something. But if I had the money I would get a tutor. Also not all teachers are good. I wish I can thank my high school French teacher. She forced us to talk. Our midterms and Finals were to eat out as a class and only speak French. 15 years later, haven't studied or had much interaction with French. I can still speak some French, but with a bad accent due to lack of practice... But I still understand about 80% when I hear/read French. So finding a good teacher is crucial.

[@eire02]

I definitely recommend self-studying or at least starting out with self-studying! I started self-studied Korean since December 2017 during Year 11 (not the best idea because I should’ve been working on my exams...) but I’m going to university to do a BA in Korean (and hopefully do my MA and PhD) because I’ve gotten to a point where I’m not happy with my lack of improvement (mostly because I feel like I’m not testing myself enough or using Korean at all because I’m not comfortable using online exchange apps or anything...). I also think starting with self-studying allowed me to get through the very basic knowledge without being rushed and getting lost later on. I want to go into translation in publishing so I think a degree would be better for that! However, I did study French for 6 years at school (did it at GCSE) and German for 3. I remember absolutely nothing! I just memorised stuff for tests but didn’t really care because I was forced to do the languages (apart from at GCSE but I didn’t know what else to choose haha), unlike with Korean where I actually want to study and get a degree, etc etc. Thank you for the video Lindie, it was really interesting!

[@senthilnalini2004]

i checked your web page and got a lot of in site about Korean resources ,books you used ,app thank you vary much

[@claudineijesus5933]

it depends on the motivation of each person I believe that 90% percent want to be in class to interact with other students and self-help in the language starts there as in any profession because many times of what we are not seeing another person may be seeing and understanding together with teachers and with all technological help people will always want to look for educational institutions to be studying . ..depende da motivação de cada pessoa que eu acredito que 90% por cento tem vontade de estar na classe para interagir com outros alunos e ajuda automática - as línguas começa ai como em qualquer profissão porque muitas vezes essas coisas que não estão vendo outra pessoa pode estar vendo e compreendendo juntos com os professores e com toda a ajuda tecnológica como pessoas sempre vão querer procurar como instituições de ensino para estudar

[@dr.merlot1532]

What if I want to talk about my lost bag, and what If I happen to know a Mr.Tanaka?!?!?!?

[@19Rockyou]

I would want a class because I feel like I get distracted too easily while learning a language. I’m currently learning Japanese and I have a hard time with the kanji and katakana. Hiragana I’m good but everything else I’m lost.

[@linhphuongn8]

Thanks so much, Lindie. Be safe and keep up the good work 💙

[@briantb5550]

Self study works for me. I like the lingodeer stuffed toy behind you :)

[@sella-san6663]

I am currently self studying Japanese language. I watch KZbin lessons and I read pdfs. and I realized that there's something lacking in my self study journey i.e. people who can be my speaking partner anytime or a teacher I can ask if I have clarifications. So hopefully I will enroll myself in Nihongo classes available in our city soon.

[@asianistlife]

Classroom learning lets you have a good foundation for self-studying the higher levels of a language. Self-study and learning through language partners isn't really effective at the basic level coz people tend to get lost without proper guidance, and language partners aren't usually language experts so they actually teach you the wrong things about grammar. I understand that you are selling online language products, though. But let's not speak badly about classroom learning too much as it has its definite merits. My classroom sessions have allowed me to sound educated, decent, and polite in my target languages as compared to self-studying, especially with a very hierarchical language like korean, for example.

[@avolovo]

I agree! I learned Spanish in middle school and high school. Since then I’ve been self studying and many natives compliment my grammar , which I greatly attributed to my in person classes. I took two semesters of Mandarin in college and now self study. But I feel like I need more guidance in my grammar and speaking. I think I need to get back to taking more classes.

[@asianistlife]

@@avolovo Hi there! Happy to know that you get the point of classroom learning for building a strong foundation in our target language. Get the basics right and self-study and language exchange will be much better. I hope that this youtuber who's been only sellng us online products lately will not undermine this anymore. And I hope she'll be back to creating quality content sooner rather than later. Im serously disappointed and seriously thinking of unsubscribing if she puts out another advertorial type of video.

[@asserehe5075]

I definitely agree! I have been flirting with Korean for almost 4 years, but despite knowing the alphabet I just didn't know where to go, there are so many resources available that I didn't know how to use, every where you go there are polyglots (who are experienced in learning languages) giving tips on how to learn (that makes a first time language learner confused and lost). This year I decided to start an online Korean course (the best one in my country!) and I'm honestly disappointed I couldn't start earlier! Thanks to this course I am not only getting a good introduction to the language, but can also improve on my own (although plan on taking this course until the end, which will probably take me around 1,5-2 yeas). I also like the fact that we get to learn on our own pace in this course

[@POLIGLOTA-wb4fp]

In my experience, I've learned my languages without taking classes. It takes a lot of discipline, but it is the best way to learn a language, plus, it's more fun. "The Natural Approach. " 1-Spanish (Mother tongue) 2- English 3- French 4- Italian 5- Portugese 6- Currently learning deutsch

[@angelsiasr]

Cesar González Would you mind sharing with me some sites to find french vocabulary?

[@POLIGLOTA-wb4fp]

@@angelsiasr Français autenthique is a great resource you can use if you know the basics. To be honest, I used duolingo to reinforce pronunciation at the beginning. I also downloaded "everyday conversations in french." For vocabulary I used the book "learn in you car french" now on-line. Very old but really effective.

[@mutiyangpilingbabae9207]

I love both because there are times I learn more by myself but there are times I learn too with a class.

[@betinaceciliafeld9854]

Jaja, tu reacción ante el trueno es impagable ☺. Saludos desde Argentina 😄🇦🇷

[@lursf9316]

The best is to do both. And to take large gaps between courses where you do a ton of repetitions and self study. There's a really good italian school here in san francisco called the istituto italiano scuola. but after each course in the elementary level , i'd wait a year before taking the next. and in that year i paid people in italy to send me audios of every single exercise in the exercise book and listened to that in my car during my daily commute. But I still went and back took the course for the interaction and the spontaneity of an actual classroom. Also, a teacher is always going to find little things that need correcting.

[@c7c30b]

Totally agree. Self study is the best way I think.

[@joshuamaurits6366]

i think for begining i like to learn with ambitious friend, because i'm the type that will lost the will to study alone and i will be study hard if i have a couple of friend that ambitious. after knowing the basic and can hear properly i will rather study alone by watching something related to the language that i learn.

[@tiocsti]

For me, the only advantage of in-person classes is the fact that i've paid a reasonable amount for them, so I feel more motivated to be consistent. However, most of the in-person classes end up teaching using methods which I don't particularly enjoy and things like in-person tprs classes are still somewhat less common. Fortunately, CI/tprs based online classes are becoming (slightly) more common. Even if I were well suited to something like lingoda, I wouldn't be able to justify it ethically due to the compensation practices most internet group classes have (including lingoda).

[@rburns1182]

I`ve been trying to get myself to self study since I want to master Korean once and for all and also start learning French after that. But i have a hard time pushing myself if there`s no one to study with or no one to motivate me which is why I`ve decided to take classes so I have something steady to work towards. :D after I get to a certain amount of fluency, definetely want to self study though :D

[@mayafoxwitch]

I combine physical language classes and self-study. I enjoy hearing what teachers tell extra stuff about target languages culture and encourages talking. Online courses don’t motivate me much due to payment, I’m very picky with stuff that requires payment.

[@eileenbucik9801]

Same! That's exactly why I'd like to take classes (it would also make me feel more prepared to take the test for certificate which is quite motivating)

[@cami7916]

Classes are only as good as the teachers. I've had tons of English teachers at school and some were just terrible. You know things are bad when you understand more than your teacher. Thankfully I was already sort of advanced and could self-study quite efficiently although I still struggled sometimes. I'm now studying Korean (third attempt lol) and I really struggle without the external motivation, but classes are kinda hard to find here so..

[@studyberry9029]

Yay! Two new Lindie videos in a row 💕💕💕 and unrelated, we have the same desk chair 😆

[@LindieBotes]

HAHAH! From IKEA? The former tenant who stayed here before me left it here and I was like well it ain't ugly so 💁

[@studyberry9029]

@@LindieBotes yeah! Ikea! It was the best deal and had polka dots so it went in my cart 😂

[@viktoriakoteva1998]

I don‘t agree that school language classes are the same everywhere. The way you described them seems like teaching basic level language. In my school in Germany we learned Spanish for around 2 years this way, the next 3 years we talked about different topics about Spanish-speaking countries including immigration, colonisation, situation of natives, of teenagers, politics, social and historic topics etc. Same goes for my English classes since around grade 9

[@naomye.]

Loved the video (as always) and the background Awesome job Lindie 🥰

[@chemicallinguistics4690]

Can't wait! 🌸🌺❤️

[@user-ej5up9im7r]

Your room is very cool!!

[@kevinhull7925]

I pretty much have done all self-study, except for Arabic: I started with self-study, but tested into classes at university. (I think it helped that the university used different resources, as I could use my self-study resources to help my classmates. (A word from my self-study ended up on a test.)

[@youssefelbouzidi1016]

Haven’t seen the video yet but i really recommend self study over taking classes because that way you are more effective. But anyway that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice.

[@StillAliveAndKicking_]

This is very informative and very clear, thank you. I took group language classes for five years and I really do not recommend this approach. It took a lot of time to travel to and from the class, I spoke very little, and most of the time I was listening to other people speaking the language poorly, making the sort of mistakes I made. This was 35 years ago, and since then the world has changed. We now have online apps, and online tutors. I wish I had had access to the internet when I was growing up. I do wish the camera didn’t zoom in and out while you are talking, it is distracting.

[@pam5668]

i have studying english taking class for 3 years. the bad side about it is bc if you're shy like me, speaking at class is super embarrassing. bc you have a lot of ppls looking at you, like waiting for your mistakes. but, only this year i diceded to study by myself and keeping take class. and wow, that's really improved my english. and now i can have a conversation without any embarrassments or being shy, obviously my speaking is kinda terrible but im working to improve it too!

[@jedstuhr]

While studying Japanese, do you ever catch yourself or even prefer to translate from Korean to Japanese rather than English to Japanese just because the sentences tend to directly translate better in terms of vocabulary and grammar structure?

[@LindieBotes]

Oh definitely! I much prefer translating between JP and KR than JP-EN or KR-EN. The two languages have such similar sentence structure and grammar that it just makes it easier to understand.

[@jedstuhr]

@@LindieBotes haha, yea... I was wondering if I was the only one 😅😅😅 because we all know that ol' googlé likes to translate literally, and many times, when I back translate, I don't get the results that I want, so then I realized "wait, I can say that in (Kr/Jpn)!" and then tried translating THAT way and yea... 99% of the time, they translate back and forth smoothly 🤗

[@naziyashaikh8811]

I like to learn languages😊

[@KiralearnsNorwegian]

Fantastic advice and tips! Thanks Lindie, this was a clear and concise video :) Love this format.

[@LindieBotes]

Thank you so much Kira! I'm trying hard to make my videos more concise so I appreciate the feedback!

[@tiramisunsun]

Both suits me, I like to work alone at my own pace but I also like to feel grounded and have a teacher to force me to study. But as I don't have much time, self-studies will do for now I guess... Russian is hard af tho, I don'tknow if I'm doing good or not.

[@maryam-nusa]

I like both but from my own experience, when I took German for two years in class, I felt like it helped but after awhile, I started feeling like I was forced to make some progress and it made me lose motivation. It did help me with the basic, but I felt more comfortable with self studying since I’m working at my own time but I already have some basic knowledge if that makes sense! So a mix of both is the best I believe

[@user-rb8wo4vb5h]

I like to do a mix of self studying and taking classes! Taking classes seems to be a great springboard for me for self-study as a supplement. :) Right now I'm learning Ukrainian! It's going pretty well!

[@lozenwarmsprings9390]

I think It can be good to start learning by yourself (where stuff is elementary and requires a lot of memorisation) and then get a teacher when you need help understanding the more complex aspects

[@nashwanalaezy4727]

I learn English myself but I have no one to practice speaking with him .Thanks so much Lindie for your effort

[@mralef1596]

You 're such a good source of motivation!!! Greetings from Greeceee;):);)

[@georgia5026]

You have resources for Afrikaans on your website? Bless you woman. I can finally make my parents and my entire extended family proud. (I have a basic understanding of the language, but I can't speak it for the life of me lol)

[@gerickvillanueva2951]

Thank you!! so much for this information ma'am Lindie Notes 정말,정말 감사합니다♥️♥️ 저는 필리핀 사람 입니다. Maraming Salamat, Guro

[@LindieBotes]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

[@natekumar67]

Tq. Nate from Malaysia( North Borneo). Been following you for sometime.( just subscribed to ya.) You are definitely genuine and you really walk the talk... You recommended in one of your vids. I bought Living Language. Currently learning Mandarin. I want to expose myself to the language before I take group classes. Self Study was my strategy. ..however my motivation just' dissipated' . This video made me know where to move ahead. There is hope for me....hahaaha Terima kasih. Bah

[@hariporiguroto2803]

In every video you always have a motivation for me to be better🥰❤️

[@Kaykadem]

I LOVE your LingoDeer plushie Pretty useful, I’ve been por todo esto and was pretty tough, tu my biggest issue was what route to take, what to learn and in what order. Gracias por tu video. By the way, amo como tomas notas, tus cuadernos son hermosos.