Language evening classes have long been a popular way for adults to learn another language. But they don’t always work well. Here’s why & what to do instead.

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Language Evening Classes Don’t Work (You Need To Do This Proven Process Instead)

I was talking with someone who was telling me how they’d been tempted recently to sign up for an evening class in Italian at a local college.

When I asked what they wanted to achieve, and they said “to speak better”, I was glad to learn they didn’t sign up.

Evening classes can be great, but they don’t work if you want to speak better.

There’s a few reasons why not…

1) You have to wait your turn

In a group, if you want feedback on your speaking from the teacher, you’ll be waiting your turn.

Listening to everyone else’s practice before it’s finally your turn to speak and…you’ve forgotten what you want to say. Noooo!

It’s why I recommend developing a Solo Speaking Habit.

I show you how to do this in the Speak 28×28 Challenge inside Language Life.

This gives you daily chances to speak as and when you’re ready, without needing to wait your turn.

The big benefit of this is that you truly get to speak more because you’re able to speak as often and as much as you like. And more practice means faster fluency.

2) Your practice is with other newbies

When you do get to speak more, it’s typically with a partner or in a smaller group.

And chances are, you’re all there to learn Italian – none of you are experts.

You don’t get better at speaking by staying in the kiddie pool with the other newbies.

Instead of this way, in Language Life, I show you how to use the Layers of Connection Framework to find the right people to speak with on your terms.

It could be that the friends and family in your life are a great fit to practice with. Alternatively, it might fracture your relationship when they correct your grammar every time! In that case, what you might need is a tutor to work with, but perhaps you’d be better right now with an exchange partner.

There’s plenty of options, and that’s why we work through this together in Language Life so that you can decide with the Layers of Connection Framework, who to speak with and at which stages.

When you’re speaking with the right people at the right time, again, you’re able to progress quicker and easier than when you’re stuck in an evening class surrounded by other newbies.

3) You don’t get to decide what you learn

Following someone else’s ideal order of what to learn gives you lots of un-useful vocab, and plenty of gaps in your knowledge.

In fact, your evening class teacher is probably just following someone else’s plan! So it’s third-hand by the time it gets to you!

A much better approach is to become your own teacher.

And no, that doesn’t mean things will be harder.

I give you a repeatable process in Language Life that you can easily use for any language again and again.

So things will feel smoooth & easy, not overwhelming and hard.

Autopilot mode engaged.

When you become your own teacher, you’re giving yourself the autonomy and control over your learning. This means more impactful, relevant content, and less time wasted on someone else’s idea of what matters.

4) Lack of funding = lack of choice

You may be reading this thinking “But…there’s nothing on offer where I live!”.

And it’s true. Some areas have seen great declines in evening class options in recent years.

It can be an underfunded area, especially when other things take priority with your local council.

With a lack of funding, comes a lack of choices.

So even if you’re lucky enough to find a language evening class, it might not be quite the level, focus topic, or even language you’d hoped.

This is where Language Life shines in comparison.

The program is language agnostic – it works for any language.

Because I teach you how to learn languages and not a specific language, there’s also plenty of room to take what you learn and apply it to multiple languages as many times as you want and need in the future. It’s a much more longer-lasting and impactful investment than an evening class in that regard.

5) It takes too much time (with not enough reward)

If you find an evening class, you often don’t get a say on the day, time and location. This could mean a long commute to and from it at an inconvenient time for you.

When you’re trying to balance the after school driving rota AND cooking dinner AND washing up, it can be an exhausting thought to tag on a little time for yourself at the end of all that.

And because of everything we’ve already discussed – how it’s not tailored to you, there’s lack of choice, you have to wait your turn, and you’re practising with other newbies, there’s often not enough reward to justify the big time commitment it takes.

Inside Language Life, I respect your time. I’m always working to make the program more flexible to fit into your life as easily as possible.

This includes the addition of our Question Bank Private Podcast Feed, where I answer your questions on demand and you can catch up on the go at a time that suits you. No more waiting around on an hour long call just to get your one question answered at the end.

So you can be doing all the things you still need to do – the after school driving rota, cooking dinner, washing up AND learning languages at the same time and in between without it becoming this huge new thing that demands a total life upheaval.