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I've found most people have a hard time staying motivated enough to learn a language on their own. With English constantly there to fall back on, it's even harder.
Classes taught here tend to be useless too. If you want to pay for group classes, they need to be in groups no bigger then one hand. And they should be taught solely in Spanish, from day one.
The only way to truly learn a language is immersion. So many kids here come out of years of high school and university with nothing more than greetings and a bumbling version of a few verbs. I was in a Mexican restaurant and some college kids were trying to practice their spanish. One tried to say "Can I have blah blah", the same way we would, but he couldn't even use the correct verb for "to have". How many ****ing years of spanish, and he can't even order a dish. In an immersive atmosphere, you'd learn that in the first week. And really, that's the rule with American learners, not the exception.
A lot of people can't pick up and move to the Spanish world for weeks or months of study. But still, immerse yourself if you try to do it. Listen to only spanish radio, watch only spanish tv and movies. Listen to podcasts, take a class or tutor if you can. A lot of websites offer virtual intercambios, and those can be so, so helpful.
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