The slightly annoying thing about most language learning books, courses and other materials is that they have been prepared and/or presented by people who have certain linguistic friendly personality traits and are naturally gifted with languages and have often had these gifts honed through years of higher education and training in the subject. That or they are a native speaker of the language you would like to learn. Either way, when it comes to obtaining proficiency in a language, these people really cannot relate to the day to day difficulties that you or I might have to face up to. Language learning is effectively about speaking, reading, listening and writing and it is probable you will have a weakness with at least one of these areas, if you don't, I'm sorry for wasting your time, this article is not for you. Sometimes the weakness is not so important, if for example your use of Spanish is highly unlikely to involve much writing then no worries, you can focus other elements which is easy to do using using the better Spanish software learning tools such as TELL ME MORE or Rosetta Stone.  

One of the more common weaknesses is confidence in conversation which is a real killer for some people. A lot of people when speaking in their own language only express themselves fully when they feel they are on steady ground, know the people they are dealing with and know exactly what they want to say. If these conditions are not in place people will often keep their thoughts to themselves. At the bottom of this reluctance is the prevailing fear of looking stupid in front of other people which is the main reason why so many of us find the prospect of public speaking so terrifying.

The problem is that many language learners take these fears and concerns with them into the language learning process which, when you think about it, is completely inappropriate. In terms of social conduct we tend to put the same constraints on ourselves as we do when speaking our native tongue which will ultimately end in disaster. If you are concerned about feeling foolish when expressing yourself in your native language just imagine how self conscious you are going to feel when scrambling for the words or correct verb usage in a foreign language. The inevitable result is you will be become embarrassed, disheartened and you will effectively shutdown completely and try and switch any conversation back to your native tongue or make your excuses and go home.

The problem here is that your expectations of yourself are far too high and you need to re-calibrate them as you progress in a language. I suggest for the proposes of learning a language you consider yourself to be child and treat yourself accordingly. Starting out you are like an 18 months old baby, able to point at objects and say a couple of words, soon you will progress to a 2/3 year old able to construct very basic sentences in which you make a lot of mistakes and get frustrated when you cannot probably express yourself. These are mistakes that would same stupid of you were an adult, but remember you are just a baby so don't sweat it! You don't see many babies talking to adults about the future of Palestine or Afghanistan and as such you should not feel obliged to do it either or feel bad if you cannot express your opinions on these topics, I'm not suggesting you talk about my little pony or pampers but keep it simple to start with. Children tend to express themselves more freely with other children and this is what you should do also (and no I don't mean real children!). In our case this could be a native Spanish speaker who is trying to learn English.

Try and do 'one to one' sessions so you have no where to hide. Keep the session informal for example over lunch or over a beer, try and find somebody with a level of English which is on a par with your level of Spanish, so if you are a complete beginner the other person should also be a complete beginner. This way you will feel like equal partners and never really feel stupid about any lack of knowledge. If possible try and dip outside your existing social or professional circles, this again will make you feel less self-conscious about the whole thing. If you are initially too shy to do this in person then fall back to the Internet, there are great free tools such as Shared Talk and My Happy Planet exactly for this purpose. Later use Craig's List or equivalent to find a face to face language partner. Before you know it your confidence, vocabulary and expressiveness will have increased dramatically and step by step you will be able to transfer your new skills to more 'adult' situations. The most important take away from this is that although you will unavoidably find that on occasion speaking in your new language is a soul crushingly embarrassing experience, now you know to just put it down to experience and come back stronger the next time. After all you are only a baby.

( Adapted from the language learning blog. )

1. When first starting out, try to just listen to your target language as much as possible without attempting to speak it. This helps you acquiring an ear for the language.

2. Develop a deep desire to learn the language. Without a desire you won’t get far.

3. Use time for you language learning which is ordinarily wasted. Standing on line, waiting for an elevator, etc., are all opportunities not to be missed.

4. Think in terms of phrases and not individual words. It’s easy to remember a phrase like “a breakfast of bread and butter” than it is to remember each word in isolation.

5. Use your imagination. Visual images can help you remember words.

6. Invent stories using as much of your new vocabulary as possible. Any words you can’t think off in your target language use your native language and then look up those words later.

7. Listen to internet radio broadcasts and podcasts as much as possible.

8. Likewise, watch videos. (http://youtube.com/)

9. Utilize the BBC for news broadcast and lessons in your target language. (Such as BBC Mundo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/)

10. Utilize flashcards or small notebooks to review vocabulary words and phrases

11. Invent funny or silly mnemonic phrases to help you remember new words or concepts.

12. Use a bilingual dictionary often, not just to look up specific words, but browse through it.

13. Draw columns on paper, words in your native language on the right and target language on the left. This allows your eye to easily scan to one column to the next and it helps your brain absorbs that word.

14. Write a simple children’s book in your target language. Make it silly and utilize simple concepts as though a child was actually going to read the book.

15. Learn the past tense before learning the present tense, and save the future tense for last.

16. Practice unfamiliar sounds in your target language in the shower or in the car. Example: the English “th” sound. Say it over and over.

17. Use computer programs (like TELL ME MORE or Rosetta Stone) and free online dictionaries. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/, http://dictionary.cambridge.org/, http://www.merriam-webster.com/) and free
    textual and audio chat sites like:  Shared Talk & My Happy Planet

18. When reading, read more slowly and deliberately than you do in your target language. Later, as you progress, your speed will increase to normal levels.

19. Read bilingual books or books in the target language that you are already familiar in your native language.

20. Read comics and cartons in your target language

21. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake.

22. Read your grammar books.

23. Think in your target language

24. Put stickers in everyday life items until you’ve learned their names.

25. Take an occasional break or a day or two off to let your mind sort out your new vocabulary words.

 

Step 1: Identify your motivation and interest to learn.
Identifying your real motivation for learning any language is of critical importance to the process. Being able to refer back to what really interests you about being able to speak Spanish is what is going to keep you on tack if and when things get tricky. Don't be coy about this point either, you don't have to be honest with other people about your motivation but you at least need to be honest with yourself. Your desire to learn does not have to be a 'noble' one, if your real motivation to learn a language is for example so that you can use that skill to meet members of the opposite sex then embrace it and look forward to it as this is going to be a very powerful and useful tool for you. Or it may be that you are desperate to experience spending a couple of years living aboard but you might not want this to be common knowledge among your workmates. If you don't particularly feel like sharing your real motivation with your friends or peers then by all means tell them you've been just dying to read the entire works of Gabriel García Márquez in the original text. Slightly more believable options might be: I'm planning to travel to Spain or Latin America for my holiday next year or I'll be working a lot with a Spanish speaking contractor. Before any study session remind yourself of your real motivation.

Step 2: Identify your learning material and vocabulary.
The material you use to study is very important and the decision you make should reflect your own interests, study plan and the real motivation identified in step 1. Firstly a note on vocabulary, all modern languages have enormous vocabularies with tens of thousands of words. However the curios thing is that typically just 100 of those words tend to make up approximately 50% of the spoken language itself, 300 of them make up over 65%. In the first weeks of study focus on getting down the first 100 and eventually the top 500 words of Spanish. You can find a Spanish high frequency list that has been generated from subtitles of movies and television series with a total of about 27.4 million words on wiktionary. Beyond the top 500 remember to focus on words which either a) match your real motivation or b) your general day to day interests such as your favourite sport or pastime. If you don't cook don't waste your time learning cooking terminology. Flash cards are an excellent way to ensure vocabulary ends up in your long term memory, visual education provide them for many languages and there are customisable software packages such as 'Before You Know It' which allow you to download and invent your own lists and help monitor your retention.This will give you the grounding you need to be proficient and the rest will follow.

For basic introductions to a language I can recommend the Michel Thomas audio series which provides a classroom style introduction where you are become the third student in Michel's learning group. Michel focuses on the use of verbs in a language but less so on vocabulary which you should build separately. Pimsleur is a popular alternative which excels in pronunciation and conversation practice. For a more complete solution TELL ME MORE is a software package which rates very highly and covers every element of language learning while also monitoring your progress. The only draw back from my perspective is that with over 850 hours of instruction and 4500 exercises you may feel a bit daunted at the prospect to journeying through it all. Other software packages which cover most bases and rate highly include Rosetta Stone, Rocket Languages and Instant Immersion.


Step 3: Identify your major learning weakness and then learn to deal with it.
The slightly annoying thing about most language learning books, courses and other materials is that they have been prepared and/or presented by people who have certain linguistic friendly personality traits and are naturally gifted with languages and have often had these gifts honed through years of higher education and training in the subject. That or they are a native speaker of the language you would like to learn. Either way, when it comes to obtaining proficiency in a language, these people really cannot relate to the day to day difficulties that you or I might have to face up to. Language learning is effectively about speaking, reading, listening and writing and it is probable you will have a weakness with at least one of these areas, if you don't, I'm sorry for wasting your time, this article is not for you. Sometimes the weakness is not so important, if for example your use of Spanish is highly unlikely to involve much writing then no worries, you can focus on other elements.  
One of the more common weaknesses is confidence in conversation which is a real killer for some people. A lot of people when speaking in their own language only express themselves fully when they feel they are on steady ground, know the people they are dealing with and know exactly what they want to say. If these conditions are not in place people will often keep their thoughts to themselves. At the bottom of this reluctance is the prevailing fear of looking stupid in front of other people which is the main reason why so many of us find the prospect of public speaking so terrifying. The problem here is that your expectations of yourself are far too high and you need to re-calibrate them as you progress in a language. Try and do 'one to one' sessions so you have no where to hide. Keep the session informal for example over lunch or over a beer, try and find somebody with a level of English which is on a par with your level of Spanish, so if you are a complete beginner the other person should also be a complete beginner. This way you will feel like equal partners and never really feel stupid about any lack of knowledge. Before you know it your confidence, vocabulary and expressiveness will have increased dramatically and step by step you will be able to transfer your new skills to more 'adult' situations.

Step 4: Don't rely on language classes to get the job done, they won't.
More of a warning then a step but it is very tempting to enroll in a language course and hope that will be sufficient however this is a mistake. When the end of the course comes and you have not made the progress expected you can of course just assume that the teacher, course material or other students where just not good enough however in reality even a good language class will only give you 20% of what you need to become proficient. Group classes will only move as quickly as the slowest student, that's assuming they attend the class regularly otherwise it gets worse. The conversational skills you want will be best learned in one o one practice situations as described in step 3 and not in a class scenario. Even where group classes focus on conversational practice the discussion is usually dominated by one or two chatter boxes who really don't know when to shut up and in most situations the teacher will not be able to prevent this. In addition most classes do not generally provide you with common colloquial expressions and vocabulary for fear of corrupting you or the language which is all well and good until you are confronted with a native speaker and have no idea what he or she is talking about. Vet the school before you start or ask to sit in on a lesson, check the level of the course and the other participants is correct for you. It cold be that you will make more progress on your own.