by James Mallon

Created on: January 21, 2012   Last Updated: June 03, 2012

Learning a foreign language is not easy, and it requires immense commitment to attain any level of proficiency. You must be realistic about language expectations, and also be aware that “picking up a language” is not as easy as picking up a souvenir from a tourist shop in the country of your choice.

There are companies who claim you can learn a language in three months with the courses they offer. “Discover a new you and fluently converse with people from other countries with ease - it’s great fun and so effective.”  Their claims are not generally true, and the majority of enthusiastic people, who embark on such courses, become quickly disillusioned, because the progress they make is minimal.

These courses can help, as they give exposure to language learning and provide a good foundation. Being confident with conversational day-to-day language can take up to five years or longer, depending on your dedication and linguistic abilities. If your language aspirations are for a holiday abroad, then these courses are very useful for helping with hotel reservations, eating out or asking for general directions. 

Learning a language from the beginning is as about as interesting as learning chemical or mathematical formulae, due to the continuous repetition of memorising words and simple phrase structures.  There are only so many times you may wish to say “This is a red pen, the red pen is on the black table”, or anything similar. When you do start to improve, beyond the monotonous phrases, your confidence and your appetite for languages will grow.

Practise every day, because the language learnt will easily be forgotten as your brain downloads words into your dormant memory banks, through lack of language exercise.  It is important to choose a language where you have a genuine interest in the country and culture - more importantly one which is widely spoken. What is the point spending many years learning an obscure language, when you will only have a handful of people to converse with? 

Look at opportunities the language will provide if you attain complete fluency, with respect to travel and work.  There are over 400 million people worldwide that speak Spanish, so there are clear motives to learn it. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States with the Hispanic influence and Mexico and Latin America not too far away, which is another reason why this language is a

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