Which is faster for you?

[ILuvEire]

I was wondering whether people here learn languages better by teaching themselves, or by taking a class/at school. I learn languages a LOT faster on my own. I've been taking French at my high school since the beginning of September (2008), and I have learned more Norwegian in one month on my own than I have French in four months at school. AND I've learned more German in ~4 months than I would in an entire year at schools here.

The United States completely sucks at teaching languages (in grade schools), and I can't figure out why you can't start learning foreign languages in Elementary school like the rest of the world; instead you can't start a language until your last 4 years of school, when you could've become fluent in 2 languages if you had started years ago.

I've learned much faster on my own than in class. A semester of German hasn't taken my as far as a semester of solo Italian, but that's just because many people in my class are monolingual, and are having many issues with verbs and cases. Haha.

[Quevenois]

Ok.

[nighean-neonach]

Some just register at the university to have an insurance or some advantages like that.

That's what I used to do But then study fees came and I was "thrown out". Then I had to work hard for a few years to save enough money because I really wanted to go to university again and start something new

I love the idea of simply attending an exam I'd do that all the time, if it was possible here. I think in some subjects it even is, but not in mine.
I can't attend as many classes as I'd have to because I work about 20-25 hours a week, so I'm slow at uni, and I have to pay the study fees every semester even if I just attend a couple of classes... that's a bit unfair indeed, because there are others who might be able to attend twice the number of classes and not work at all... but well, that's just the way it is here now. I'm lucky in that I learn quickly and don't have to do much extra work at home (and that's with doing more languages and stuff than what's compulsory in my degree programme).
But every time I miss a class more than twice during a semester - and that happens quite often because I travel to Scotland a lot - I have to talk to the teacher and find out what I can do to stay in the class
On the other hand, we have lots of classes without end-of-term exams, you just pass the class by attending regularly, doing a presentation and/or some assignments, reading a few books and taking part in the discussion in class, etc. Usually about half my classes each semester are like that, in the others there is a test or exam at the end, and in some you have to write a paper during the holidays after the semester.

[Supreemio]

When I did a Gaeltacht course in Donegal I must say that I didn't learn a lot from the teacher I prefer to teach myself rather than being in a classroom. The teacher I had didn't teach my dialect she spoke a mixture between Conamara and the Standard.

The other languages other than English that I can speak is self study.