How to learn a foreign language efficiently.

First of all, I want to stress how useful learning a foreign language is. I fell in love with French aged 11 on my first day of secondary school. Since then, as my French has improved and I have gotten older, I have experienced more and more of the benefits learning a new language brings. You learn a new way of thinking. It takes 'open mindedness' to a new level, and you become able to appreciate different cultures in a whole new way. With each language you learn, you broaden your horizons that little bit more. One of the more obvious benefits of learning a foreign language is that you can simply speak to millions upon millions of new people that you otherwise would never have had the chance to know. Furthermore, travelling becomes a whole lot more exciting. Being able to speak to people in a foreign country, in their own tongue, is a unique (and at first, surreal) experience. It permits you to enjoy much more intricate aspects of a city or country, in other words, it allows you to take that extra step further as a tourist. Not to mention with today's ever growing global economy, we are seeing increasing demand for bilingual professionals in the workplace. Having a modern foreign language under your belt sets you aside from all the average Joe’s (or Jane's) and can be a deal-breaker in getting that dream job!

Over the years, as we have become more and more technologically literate and active online, so has the world of language learning. There are tons of language learning websites out there that could be perfectly suited to your life and your learning style. From downloadable decks of flash-cards to e-books, it's all there, just a click away.

'Teach Yourself' and home-learning type packages for learning languages are becoming evermore popular, and as a result there are a huge selection of top quality products out there. You need to decide whether you are going to take a class, or go it alone and teach yourself. There are pros and cons to both options. For example, going to a class means that you have someone there for you, i.e. a teacher, who understands the kind of problems you are going to face when learning that particular language, also the support of being with other students who are in the same position as you. However, it can be a slow process, and an expensive one. Also, don't forget that the teacher, or institute, that teaches you the language is going to keep you there as long as possible and make as much money as possible (they're there to teach you a language too, but the pace at which they do so is going to be reflected in the price of each lesson). Teaching yourself can be extremely efficient and fun. You are able to work around your own schedule, allowing you to reap the benefits of learning a new language whilst keeping your busy life in order. As technology has developed, its taken language learning with it, and there are now many different ways to learn a language by yourself. Some of which include books with CD's/mp3 disks, e-books, flash-cards, etc. Moreover, it is cheaper than taking a class, and in most cases, quicker. This is because you don't have other students holding you back, as in a class situation, you have to learn as a class, which can at times be a bit too laborious.

The process of learning a language may be rewarding, but don't be fooled, it's hard work. In this article I am going to outline the key factors you need to be familiar with to teach yourself a foreign language.

1. Resources.
Possibly the most important aspect of teaching yourself is having a quality source of information. A simple way to judge if a product is of any use to you as a language learner is whether or not the product has 3 of the following things:

- Access to audio of native speaker. This is essential because exposure to how a language is truly spoken in its natural habitat is really the only way in which you can come close to fluency. The truth is, no speaker of a language, no matter how fluent, is always 100% accurate. Everyone makes mistakes, and the last thing you need is to be picking up someone else's bad habits.

- A rich vocabulary. Many teach yourself style books have vocabulary lists at the back of the book which give you an insight into the amount of words you'll have acquired by the end of the course. No matter how many useful grammatical rules you know, without the vocabulary you wont get anywhere. This also works both ways, which brings us to our third and final aspect that you need to look out for.

- Clear grammatical explanations/notes. Even though its likely that you have minimal knowledge of the language, and the language learning process when you are looking out for these particular aspects of the learning material, it always helps to go to the first lesson and have a read of the grammar notes. If they are clear and easy to understand, then chances are that this trend will follow throughout the course.

There are many resources out there that one can use, here are a list of some of the more popular and effective:

Assimil. Assimil produces many different types of language learning courses, catering for learners of all levels. Most of their resources are based in French, but they do offer a few in English. They are extremely highly regarded in the online language learning community. The most popular of their courses are the 'with ease' series. These books usually comprise of 100 lessons with each lesson containing a dialogue in the target language (the language you want to learn), a translation into your native language, some short, simple, and most importantly clear grammatical notes, and a few exercises. Assimil takes on a minimalist grammar approach and focuses on learning a language in a more natural way through exposure to native speakers and the use of repetition. It is extremely effective and has produced some great results. Some of their courses however can be a little pricey, but in the long run you get what you pay for.

Teach Yourself. The Teach Yourself series is enormously popular, and for good reason. With concise dialogues, detailed, clear grammatical explanations, and many exercises. Its a popular choice as it is fairly effective and isn't too expensive.

FLR. Foreign Language Roadrunning is a program designed by the American polyglot Moses McCormick. For more information visit his website http://roadrunninglanguagecamp.com/.

Lingq. Lingq is a website founded by Canadian linguist/polyglot Steve Kaufmann. For more information visit the lingq website http://www.lingq.com/.

Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is a very popular course used to learn a multitude of languages on various levels. The courses have received a lot of criticism in the online language learning community, giving the general impression that it is overpriced and in some cases ineffective.

2. Time and effort.
In all honesty 99% of people do have the time to learn a language. A problem arises when people don't plan out when and for how long each day they are going to spend learning. There's a simple solution, and that is to allocate at least 30 minutes per day to language learning. It soon becomes part of the routine and the progress is noticeable in a short amount of time. Many people have families, demanding jobs etc., so its hard to find the time, and is sometimes impractical. There are many solutions to this. One great way to support your learning is to listen to audio material while walking, commuting, or during any other 'dead time' (i.e. time that would otherwise be spent not doing anything productive).

3. Motivation/Passion.
Motivation is one of, if not the most important factors that comes into play in being a successful language learner. If you're not motivated, then you're sure to fail. However, the truth is that its very easily and often lost, the trick is to prepare for it, and find ways in which you can reignite your motivation. Some simple ways are to watch films and tv shows that interest you in your target language, listen to music, read newspapers/magazines/books etc. This can be applied to both teaching yourself and learning in a classroom environment.

4. Practice.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to use the old cliché Practice makes perfect. Obviously you will have an advantage if you live in a city, as there are bound to be native speakers of the language you are studying, all you have to do is strike up conversation like how you would with any anglophone, and try and practice what you've learnt. Even though you may make mistakes, for the most part the objective of learning any language is communication. You don't need 100% accuracy to be understood.
Fear not country folk, as there is a solution for you too! The internet. There are tons of social networking websites that can be effectively used to practice your target language, not to mention language learning forums and pen-pal type websites. Just google it!