Language course or self-study? Some pros and cons.

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Buondì.

Earlier this week I was checking out the SERP for one of our various websites, that being a nice, easy job I reserve for moments when I don’t have the ‘voglia’ to do anything more useful.

Basically, I have a list of ‘search’ terms (that’s the ‘S’), which I copy and paste into Google (both the ‘S’ and the ‘E’), then trawl through the pages of results that appear (the ‘P’ and the ‘R’) to see where our particular site appears, if at all, and which other sites are present.

For instance, if you paste or type ‘learn Italian’ into Google, you should see the club website (though Google shows different results to different people…) along with other websites competing for your attention. Look carefully to see what they’re selling. Everyone’s selling something, including us.

Anyway, I was doing this for our online lessons site NativeSpeakerTeachers.com, which will be running a free trial lesson promotion next week (for details of that, scroll way, way down, to the P.S.), and in particular, I was looking at search terms like ‘German lessons online’.

Mostly our site was nowhere in the SERP for German, which was no surprise as 1.) there’s a lot of competition, and 2.) we don’t bother much with languages which aren’t Italian, so don’t really care.

However, because I’ve been pondering learning some German, I was paying more attention to the SERP then I usually do with such a pedestrian task. This site came top for my search term, followed by this one, and literally dozens of others.

The effect this had on me was similar to when I’m walking down the ‘Wines’ aisle of a supermarket: I’m interested, I start comparing what’s on offer and how much things cost, I evaluate the possibilities based on my existing preconceptions of what offers value.

It’s a Sangiovese, ‘Riserva’ it says on the label, but branded by a mass-market bottler, so unless they’re doing something very different, it’s probably overpriced at five-plus euros. Ah, and the alcohol by volume is low for the price range. I’ll pass.

Just like wines, language courses cost more or less, according to the marketing (primarily who’s providing them and how they’re communicating that to you), and of course the specifications: self-study courses cost the least, or should do, group courses with a teacher cost more, and one-to-one courses most of all.

Also just like wines, there are a host of things to look out for besides the basics (red, white or rosé? still or sparkling? low, medium or high price range?)

If there’s a teacher, how many ‘contact hours’ do you get for your cash? If self-study, how much material is available, and of what type? If a mix of the two approaches, what can you get for free, and how useful/stimulating does it appear to be?

Back in the day, language learners had the option of buying a self-study course of some sort from a bookstore or by mail order, or of signing up for an actual course (like this one), either in their home town or in the country where the language they wanted to learn was spoken, thereby choosing to learn in a classroom with a teacher and other students.

Those choices still exist, of course, but there are a range of other options, including materials/courses/apps which are completely free, and ‘freemium’ business models (users get some things for free, but are enticed to pay extra for other things.)

So where to begin with my German,?

Languages are so BIG, there’s SO MUCH TO LEARN, and there are SO MANY OPTIONS!

The temptation then, as I freely admit, despite being a language-learning professional (and regular wine-buyer), is to go with the promises of the most-visible, most credible-looking providers.

I always check out the bottles displayed at the end of the aisle, the ones you can’t help seeing when you walk by, which change each week (because supermarkets charge producers a fee to display their bottles there…)

In Google I look at the top ‘organic’ results on the first page, which may need some scrolling, as ‘sponsored’ results – the ones that advertisers pay for – come first.

Hopefully I’ll find there a reasonable mix of the best options, though if I’m making a decision that matters, I’ll scroll through the first 10 pages of results looking for interesting outliers.

Important to bear in mind though, however good or bad my choice of a course, I’d still be choosing that particular learning route, rather than self-study, or some hybrid.

Which has both pros and cons.

With the course, for instance, it’s likely structured in such a way that if an average participant does this, she gets that, end of story.

Do this whole course, or these modules of a larger course, and the result should be that. It’ll take you this number of hours or weeks.

Then, if you wish, you can continue with this other course, which will take that amount of time, and get you that result.

And the costs are…

The primary ‘pro’ is the appearance of certainty, which makes the decision easier, and reduces anxiety about doing something new.

The main ‘con’ is that it’s ‘one-size-fits-all’, and ‘unisex’ to boot.

That’s not how I selected what to wear this morning, and I suspect it won’t necessarily suit me as a language learner either.

The course might be too easy, too hard, too boring, or involve too much grammar. And if I’m not happy?

Take it or leave it. You pay this, you get that (if you show up, and do what we tell you…) Now sign here, please.

Or – and this is a common and reasonable approach – I could skip the paid-for course options, at least for now. In fact I could skip paying for anything at all, and see how I’d get on with ‘just’ the free material.

I was looking at a Beginner’s German course offered by a respected UK university, which would have taken up thirty or so hours of my valuable time doing self-study (no teacher was involved) and cost me nearly £200.

I didn’t dismiss the option immediately, but reading on I discovered that there was a Beginner’s German 2, a Beginner’s German 3, and so on.

Doing the maths in my head, I figured that I’d end up paying north of a thousand British pounds, still wouldn’t have completed the first CEFR level, A1, and presumably would have done zero actual speaking.

Yeah, right. So maybe I’ll cover the basics on my own, with free material, and find a native speaker to chat with online?

The pros: that’d be cheaper than a course, much more flexible, and so potentially faster, too, as I could skip anything that didn’t seem relevant.

The cons: I’d need to captain my own ship, so to speak. And if I ran it into the rocks, I’d have only myself to blame.

So what have I decided to do about the German?

For the moment, nothing.

Instead, I’m devoting the time to reading/listening more in Swedish, French and Spanish (plus Italian, of course).

Things are still busy at home with our house guest, Bug, who’s coming up to eighteen months of age and so takes up considerable time and energy.

I’m therefore ‘consolidating’, rather than starting something new.

Then, when my time is once more my own, I might make the course/self-study decision based on other factors: a long-frustrated desire to travel, to spend more time with other adults, to take a break from working from home, and so on.

Perhaps it won’t matter which wines I drop in my trolley, or why.

As long as there’s plenty to drink with dinner!

Alla prossima settimana.

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