Introduction:

When you’re starting to learn a language, you’re probably wondering whether to sign up for a language course or classes. And these things cost money so it’s an important decision to make.

One of the most common problems with language learning is forgetting. You spend months or years building some knowledge of a language, only to find a few years later that you’re unable to speak it very well. There’s a few ways you can deal with this. One is to simply accept that forgetting is a price paid as part of learning, with the silver lining that relearning tends to be faster. If you forget the language, you can brush up again with a shorter period of practice than originally.

Are language courses worth your money?

Language learners often jump at the idea of joining a language course because it seems like the ultimate solution to their language learning problems. But often, they don’t ask themselves whether the language course is actually worth their money. Or what it is exactly that they’re paying for. Or why they’re paying for that specific thing.

So, if you’re wondering whether a language course is worth it, I would encourage you to first ask yourself what you actually need.

Identifying your language learning needs:

Don’t start by browsing courses to see which one you like most. Start with your own needs. What is it that you’d like help with? What is it that you’d be willing to pay for? What is it that you wouldn’t be able to do on your own, or you’d find it hard to do on your own?  

Exploring these questions will help you pin down your needs and then find the best tool to meet those needs. And that tool might indeed be a language course or class. But it might be something completely different (see my post about how to choose language learning resources). 

Focusing on your needs will force you to think outside the box. And it might turn out that a course is not actually the right way to go. Or, if it is, you might find it easier to select the type of course that matches your specific needs.