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and instant feedback. Again, variety is the key here. If you're not happy with one explanation of a grammar point, look for a different one: sometimes just having it explained in a different way or seeing different examples of how it's used can suddenly make it clear. It's not a bad idea to make your own notes about new grammar points as they arise. Chances are you'll write things down in a way that makes sense and is clear to you, which makes it easier to remember and easier to come back to and revise later.

Try to listen to the language as much as possible. Listening is a skill that sometimes gets forgotten about, but is one of the most important. It's one thing being able to understand a written passage, with time to look up vocabulary and think about meaning; it's quite another being able to understand a native speaker talking at normal speed. This may seem a daunting, if not totally impossible, task at first, but with practice you will find your ear becomes more attuned to the language. You'll find you can start to pick out individual words and short phrases and gradually you'll start to be able to understand the gist of what's going on. There's a real sense of satisfaction and achievement when you can listen to something in another language and know what they're talking about! Try to listen to "real" language as well as any cassettes or CDs that come with a course. If you can pick up radio stations in the target language, that's a great way to improve your listening skills. My car radio is permanently tuned to my favourite French station, and apart from anything else, it makes use of time spent sitting in rush hour traffic! Better still is TV and video or DVD, as the visual input can really help with understanding what's happening and therefore what's being said.

Reading as much as you can in the target language is really useful not only for picking up vocabulary but for getting a feel for how the language works, for what sounds right and what doesn't. This can help hugely when it comes to your own writing and speaking. Choose reading material carefully, though, and don't be too ambitious at first: if you find yourself having to look up every second word to make any sense out of it, you're not going to get much beyond the first page. Children's books make a good starting point if you can get hold of some: they usually use fairly simple but useful vocabulary and sentence structure and tend to be presented in short, manageable chunks. They'll usually have

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