I seriously consider YouTube to be the best educational resource for language learning purposes. I've been learning english for 2 years now on my own and I sincerely believe that I've gone quite far in it. And mostly for that I owe YouTube which is the best way for self studying. This surely can't fully substitute for a real experience of communication with native speakers but it's the best what you can get instead. And it's free. Well, yeah, distant Skype lessons with a native speaker are obviously really helpful but YouTube is much more affordable. But it also should be used in a smart way. Watching tons of videos in a row with no slight comprehension of what this is talked about isn't a good way to do it. It would bring no result. What I learnt from it is that the best way to develop your listening comprehension skills and vocabulary (yes, it's not gonna improve your speaking abilities significantly) is to learn the subject that you're most interested in. So along with learning the language you can learn something beyond it. For example I've always been so much into religion/atheism/science stuff. So I've watched so many atheism/religion debates, plenty of scientific and religious documentary videos. At first with no understanding whatsoever I started researching it via YouTube (mostly, not exclusively). This was tough. I had to set a video on a pause to look up an unknown word almost every half a minute or so. Yes, it may turn you away from learning if you're given a subject you have no interest for but when you're genuinely curious you wanna know by any means! So there eventually comes the time when you are through these difficulties and you've developed the vocabulary needed. And it's rewarding! I had a list of 5000 most frequently used english words and after about a year of learning the language there left approximately 1500 words that I still hadn't removed from the list but I was so tired of learning words I didn't need as I felt at the time. So I quit. After a half a year of learning english on Youtube I just accidentally came across that list and surprisingly enough crossed nearly all the remaining words off the list. The thing is that I started learning words I needed at the time. While watching videos I was always taking notes. There is a special corner for my vocabulary note on my laptop. It's always open so I could type a new word and it's there until I memorize it. So learning words that are necessary for understanding the subject you like the most is the best way to expand your vocabulary. And they get memorized way faster!