Yeap, some years ago I attended to some regular/standard classes and that boring and never-ending mantra of the verb to be repeated again and again made me quit those lessons and start to learn myself through music, movies, books, internet forums and stuff like that... well, at least now I can communicate a bit so I'm happy with that decision :)

Sure! I did and still do it, and I think sometimes this is necessary. As an absolute beginner, all I had in my hands regarding English vocabulary was totally new, so I devoured it. A little bit of grammar and writing exercises were important too. As an intermediate learner, I needed more challenging materials, interesting subjects and more opportunities to listen and speak. Now, as an advanced English learner, I can read or listen to many subjects and talk to most people, but I still need lots of practice and, sometimes, to focus on the grammar to keep growing my knowledge around the language. The same happens to the other languages I have been studying. Every time I start studying a new language, the whole process repeats itself, but in a different and faster way. In addition to that, despite I love learning languages (and new things in general), I need to change the way I do things or I can be bored and end up losing my interest on that. Changing is good!

I always like to try out new things when I start a new language. But the biggest change came when I discovered italki and started to upload notebook entries and take 1-on-1 classes with online teachers. Both methods have improved my language process immensely.