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the toilet or any place where you spend a lot of time. Put some mp3s in the new language on your ipod and have a CD ready in your car. Try and ask yourself questions and answer them while walking down the street or hanging on a strap in the metro.

Total immersion in the language is a good idea. Try and spend some time working or vacationing in a place where they speak your target language. This should speed up the process considerably. Try to travel by yourself and meet the locals. When you hang out with other language learners you probably won't learn as fast.

Finally try to get a real interest in the language and the culture. If you like the feeling the language gives you you will be more motivated to learn it.

So to sum up

1)Watch television for at least five minutes every day
2)Learn the rules for pronunciation
3)Read voraciously
4)Take a class (or if you can a private teacher. It's worth the money)
5)study the alphabet
6)combine activities such as reading and listening or speaking and writing.
7)Converse
8)Integrate the language into your life.
9)Go abroad to immerse yourself
10)Don't ask about the whys. As you learn more things become obvious by themselves. Or to go all Yoda on ya: "There is no why".
11)Don't be afraid to make mistakes
12)Don't become a grammar based speaker unless you want to sound like the terminator.
13)Don't look back. If you keep at it the language will open itself for you.

Oh, and although this should be obvious, the real key to success is making a plan that actually includes the name of the television show you will be watching, the names of the websites you want to read, the times at which you plan to do these activities, the place where you want to take a class, the textbook you plan to use and so on. Making a concrete personalized plan is the first step in turning the dream of learning a second language into a reality.

Learn more about this author, Joost Steffensen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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