If you took a poll to see what the hardest languages to learn in the world would be, you'd have no trouble finding a place for both English and Chinese in the top ten. I was fortunate enough to learn both of these as a native speaker, and since then have gone on to learn Japanese and Korean. While I don't know the difficulty and pain of learning Chinese and English, my experiences with learning Japanese and Korean (which are rather similar to Chinese in certain ways) have at least given me an insight into how others learn difficult foreign languages. These are just some of the most interesting ways I've heard of people who speak very fluent English or Chinese tell me how they've managed to master aspects of these languages.

1. Online chat programs - believe it or not, programs like QQ (a Chinese chat program) with a built in translator has allowed on friend to teach himself Chinese by chatting to Chinese people from all over the world.

2. Virtual reality programs - in the same way as chat programs, virtual reality programs such as Second Life and HiPiHi (a Chinese version of SL) facilitates the communication and exchange of ideas and information as well as interaction in a variety of languages.

3. Comics and cartoons - a favourite for those who pick up languages while enjoying some very entertaining and often addictive genre of publication.

4. Karaoke - one that I've come across recently, where a foreigner has learnt to pronounce Chinese perfectly from singing at a Chinese karaoke bar.

5. Pornography - again, another one that I've come across recently, which just goes to show that if you are exposed to it enough, eventually you will learn something (whether it was really your original intention or not).

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