Suki
I "learned" a bunch of languages at school. Late in life I elected to take a bunch of Arabic classes, but in my adolescence we had to do languages as a middle school/high school requirement, and I did three years of Spanish and three years of Latin.
All I retain from that learning experience today is how to say very basic and common Spanish phrases or recognize the odd word. In Latin, all I can say is, "Look! In the picture, there are two girls sitting under a tree."
I, personally, learn a lot better outside of classes. When I lived in Hawaii, I lived with Japanese nationals, and I was the only real English speaker, so over a single year I got used to the basics of Japanese and I
still know what I'd consider roughly conversational Japanese, or, enough Japanese to survive as a tourist for a couple days. But that doesn't do me much good in New England (except for one time when Japanese tourists visited my old cafe and between the two of us knowing bits and pieces of each other's language, successful breakfast was ordered and directions/pleasantries exchanged).
I am really jealous of people who grew up in a household where more than one language was used. That's probably the ideal way to learn.