tarvos wrote:'The thing is that you use them for different purposes. I tend to switch tutors for different levels. Horses for courses.
The other part is that I need reality to motivate me, and books are not reality. I live in a real world where the need for me to speak another language often eclipses that of reading purely because I move around a lot and for work reasons.
Fair points, although I don't think anybody was arguing for books and reading over speaking. I certainly prefer to focus on spoken language first and worry about reading later on. I just don't really feel the need for tutoring early on, because I don't have that immediate real-world need to speak that you describe. I'm sure tutoring at beginner level would help me, but I'm not sure it's worth the cost and hassle when I'm in no rush, have no shortage of motivation, and I can learn the basics soon enough in my own time. As always this is just my own situation and preferences though, and my language study is currently very much for pleasure rather than necessity. For your situation I agree that tutoring from early on is the way to go.