Teach Yourself Spanish here or in a Spanish country?

Sometimes people will say, "the only way to teach yourself Spanish is to go down and live there for a while." Not true. This is great to do after you learn the language well, not before. Please understand that the fastest way to learn anything is to work from your strength, not your weakness. It is very difficult to learn in a vacuum. Your strength is your English, not your Spanish. 

In his classic book, "The Seven Laws of Teaching," John Milton Gregory asserts that "the unknown must be learned from the known." This is accepted in all valid forms of training. It is time we accept it in language training. It is faster, it is easier and it works. You do not, nor should you, learn in a vacuum. You learn best based on tangible, understood principles.