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Step 1
Use the internet. There are entire websites dedicated to learning a language, complete with interactive exercises, audio clips and pop quizzes. Most are free and follow a logical step-by-step system to ensure that even beginners can keep up.
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Step 2
Choose learning materials that match your personality and learning style. If you have a visual memory, it makes more sense to choose books with a lot of pictures and tables or to learn through videos. If you memorize sounds better, consider audiotapes.
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Step 3
Find penpals who speak the language you are trying to learn. Again, the internet has made this extremely easy. You can now join forums, exchange emails and have IM conversations with people from around the world with just the click of your mouse.
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Step 4
Make practicing the language an everyday occurrence. While you may not have chances to speak the language directly on your daily life, you can still find 20 minutes to read out loud, do a few exercises and revise whatever you did the day before.
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Step 5
Resist the temptation of translating everything back to English. Try remembering things by thinking of associations with other words you already know or by helping yourself with pictures and diagrams. Training yourself to think in a different language, rather than translating everything back to English, will speed up the learning process considerably.
