When trying to gain familiarity with a new language, it’s crucial to get your practice time in. Without ample application, all the classroom sessions you do won’t amount to anything. Lessons, after all, only serve to introduce you to a vernacular – it’s the real-world use that reinforces it.
Some people say you can learn a new language even without formal lessons, books or language software. After all, we didn’t own a guidebook to learning to speak back when we were young. Would it still be possible to try and learn, now as an adult, a new language without a formal guide?
Personally, I think you’re shooting yourself in the foot if you do so. Young children are able to adopt languages early because the adults around them know that they’re still learning. As such, they did not need to learn to speak in order to be able to communicate. When they wanted something, they just cried – do you seriously think you can do the same?
While I won’t discount the possibility of learning a new language completely lesson-free, instruction gives you a good base to stand on. Those memorized phrases, mundane as they may sound, will come in handy, especially when you’re immersing yourself in a place where the only language spoken is the one you’re looking to learn. Using those simple phrases, you can get around, ask for help and provide information to those assisting you.
For the most part, I think it’s impossible to learn a new language without formal lessons as an adult. You’re welcome to try, but I reserve the right not to look at the resulting disaster.