Language Learning Tips

If you're an American high school or middle school student, chances are that you're going to be required to take foreign language classes. Here are some tips to help you along.

• Immerse yourself in the language. Set your computer's language to whatever language you're trying to learn. Just make sure you remember the settings path you took in case your new toolbar has you completely stumped. 
• Listen to foreign language songs. Lots of high school students in American learn Spanish as their second language. The good news is that Spanish is all around us! You can probably find a Spanish-language radio station in your car, and when you do, be grateful you're not learning Swedish. 
• Watch TV programs in Spanish. (For ease of writing, I'm just going to assume the reader is learning Spanish. Substitute the language you're learning if that's not true.) Don't watch the news, though. Most of the time, reporters talk way too fast. I can barely keep up with news broadcasts in my native language! Try watching a soap opera or, better yet, a children's show. Just think of it this way: you'll be learning Spanish the same way a baby in Mexico, Spain, or most of South and Central America would. 
• Read children's books in Spanish. You might be able to find some bilingual books at your local library, depending on the Latino population in your neighborhood. 
• Label stuff. The whole point of learning a language is to communicate. That'll be hard if you don't know the words for common objects and rooms around the house. 
• Go to a news site from Mexico, Spain, or any number of Spanish-speaking nations. Don't cheat and let Google translate the page for you; read it in the original Spanish and use your dictionary only for unfamiliar words. 
• Do a little bit of practice every day, even if you don't have Spanish on Thursday's or on the weekends or on holidays. Consistent practice leads to consistent results. If your goal is fluency, you're going to need to work hard.