I have learned Czech for a year before moving to Czechia (self-learning) then 4 years doing classes. When I arrived at my first class, I was a bit lost even th

I have learned Czech for a year before moving to Czechia (self-learning) then 4 years doing classes. When I arrived at my first class, I was a bit lost even thought I had 1 year of "experience". I did progress quite fast the two first years though because I had a bit of vocabulary under my belt, but I had to re-learn all the grammar/declinaison rules. My advice to you would be: if you can afford, take classes for the language you want to learn, at least for the first year. Also forget about the quick learning tools like Duolingo and such. It makes you feel like you're learning, but from my experience, not much is being retained. I'm now switching to learning Russian and taking classes for 1 or 2 years.