[russholmes]

Same here. I went to a fairly good state school and never received any English grammar but got some French grammar. The French language teaching was terrible - hours and hours of memorising irregular verbs. I passed all the exams but still can't speak the language.

I have taught myself Swedish listening to Sveriges Radio, reading and translating news articles and following a series of short Swedish lessons on youtube. I pick up grammar as I go along rather than learn it formally. I don't use flash cards, duolingo or rote memorisation. The key thing is to read, write, listen and pronounce - form sentences and use the language rather than work on memorising vocabulary (that comes naturally).

[Symbiote]

Swedish (+Danish, Norwegian) grammar is as close as it could be to English grammar. Many of the differences are because English changed -- order the words like Shakespeare and you are most of the way there.

What works for Swedish might not work for many other languages.