@Andrew

In my experience a beginner needs a definite focus and structure, otherwise he can quickly become disillusioned or overwhelmed, much as you describe. It's not very realistic to be thrown in at the deep end and be expected to magically acquire the language as you go along, especially if you don't have a background in learning other/ related languages ( In your case Romance languages). Perhaps you could agree on a topic for the lesson beforehand, such as 'My family', 'My work' or 'My routine'.This gives you a focus and the opportunity to prepare for the lesson yourself by looking up new vocabulary or even writing some short sentences, which you can then refer to. I would have thought this would be fairly obvious to any teacher. A good teacher would also send you relevant material in advance of the lesson for you to work on, so that you're not coming 'cold' to the class. A short reading passage, a dialogue, a sound file.

You don't mention how your teacher corrects - does she interrupt you with verbal corrections, let you finish what you're trying to say first or write corrections for you in real time? Personally I hate being interrupted in the middle of a sentence and make it clear to my teachers that I don't want to work this way. I find written corrections in a doc or the Skype dialogue box most useful and spend time after the lesson writing them out again and using them as vocabulary lists to learn.

It might be a good idea to try a variety of teachers before deciding on the best fit for you, which can also be frustrating, but worth it if you're in for the long haul!

Personally I like to get to at least A2 before I start trying to speak. I'd complete a basic course book, learn some vocabulary and teach myself some rudimentary grammar and then I feel as though I have something to say and can hold a basic conversation. Other learners here may violently disagree, but it depends on your learning style.

I wish you very good luck - been there several times!

Hi Andrew. In my opinion, we have two ways to learn, and imersion one of these, it works when you feel the need, the difficult you're struggling makes your brain to force to understand and it seaches ways to do that. At the same time. In other hand, imersion need to be structured for learning. At the same time study vocabulary outside by yourself help your imersion session.

This is I am telling about:

1 Imersion need to have a context

2 Context need to have vocabulary

3 Pretending contexts, using vocabulary, you will feel confortable to learn, not stressfull.

Many years ago, I went to work in a Pilotage, this was new for me, and my interview was in English. When I got the job, my english was not proficient, and the CEO told me, you need to learn the specific English for Pilotage, because you need to speak tecnical language here. In this case, I was in imersion, talking to vessels from all over the world, I had context and I only needed to find the vocabulary, studying books of tecnical vocabulary i got to keep my job for long time. When I went to work in a hotel, I did the same, studying vocabulary a lot, and possibles phrases as well.

My advise for you is: don't worry a lot, it's a process. Create a context with your teacher (shopping, going to bakery, working in a farm, etc) and study that vocabulary for while. You do not need to be perfect, in the beggining comunication is the way, even with mistakes (as I certainly did in this text).

I hope you find a confortable way to learn this beautiful language

Let me give you an example from Turkey.

During my university years in Ankara (our capital), I lived in a students' hostel of a state foundation for four years. It was a crowded hostel with four buildings, there were 2700 students and at least 1300 of them were foreigners (mostly from Africa, Middle East, Balkans, Central Asia, Far East, Southeast Asia).

I've experienced hundreds of times that the immersion-style is too ineffective in the beginner's level. The Turkish class they attend was working this way:

....

I will only endorse what Budgie Smuggler and Chrisp have said.

Immersion is too stressful, and the constant interruptions the teacher calls 'correcting' is rubbish.

I'd suggest as they do: find a textbook and work along with the textbook for a while. This way you see the alphabet, you see the new words at the beginning of each chapter so you can prepare for the lesson, and a book (with audio CD) will give you structure and a graded/gentle way into the language.

Doing a class via immersion or with no preparation is too stressful IMO. I hate being lost in the lesson, and with no written notes to fall back on, to see the structure, grammar, vocab, etc.

Doing a normal class will help enormously too, as it will be graded, just like a text book.

After you get to A2 level, then by all means, come back to online classes and conversations.

I don’t think there's much to add after what some other participants of this discussion have said, but I can only agree that I don’t think immersion may be the best alternative for a beginner and that it probably backfires, with the student being overwhelmed and frustrated.

I think it’s always good, when you’re trying to learn a new language, to build some basic vocabulary (the earlier modules on Duolingo are a great and free way to do that) and estabillish some sort of grammar foundation to build upon (basic present/past/future tenses, gender of words, etc).

Exposing yourself to the language is certainly beneficial, but baby steps daily can be more productive than an hour once a week. You can listen to some music, watch some YouTube videos that interest you, try reading some small texts, etc.

To practise speaking, I quite like Pimsleur. As it’s audio based, you start speaking from the very first day and the vocabulary and structures become more complex as you go along.

I also love 30DSPC by Huggins International (I’ve spoken many times about it here). You receive an email daily with a topic to talk about and you record yourself daily. Simple like that. This allows for regular practise, you get to explore new vocabulary and you can receive feedback from the community.

Sharing my experience, I’ve followed these steps (when it comes to Italian, you have no idea how much I owe to the speaking challenge!) before having my first conversation with another Italian student and then with a native speaker. I make mistakes and still have lots to learn, but I feel so happy with my progress.