First Things First: Which Language?
Think about what language you want to learn. You might consider how this new language will fit into your life – what sort of job you want, where you’d like to travel, how you can use it in your day-to-day life. Remember to be realistic! If your goal is to learn Chinese in six months, you’re likely to get frustrated and quit altogether. Instead, set goals that you can actually achieve, like reaching an intermediate level in Russian after taking a summer immersion class.

How Will You Learn?
The next step is figuring out how you’re going to learn the language you’ve chosen. Here are some ideas:

Use your school. If your middle school or high school offers language courses, sign up! This way language study will easily work itself into your routine. It’s free, you’ve got to go to school anyway, and you’ll know people in the class!

Look for classes. If your school doesn’t offer a class, look around your community for other options. In some areas, you can sign up for a community education course, a class at a local community college or university, or a class offered by a private company.

Use your community. If you live in an area with a large Spanish-speaking or French-speaking population (or any other language), you can probably find either a friend at school or a family nearby willing to help you learn (either through an exchange of helping the other child learn English, or for a fee).

Get a book or audio course. Although these may not be ideal for learning a new language (after all, a language is all about communicating, which you can do more easily if you learn with others, rather than through a book or CD), they are more convenient. You can learn and study in your own time. Look for customer reviews so you get the best program for you. You can also look under “RESOURCES” to find some books and CDs we’ve already found.

Keeping it Up
The biggest challenge, once you’ve started, is to keep going! Learning a new language is difficult, and sometimes you may just want to give up. Here are some tips to help you keep up your momentum:

Make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You can’t possibly become fluent in a day (or even a month). So don’t worry if you don’t pronounce things properly, or if you put words in the wrong order. Learning a new language requires you to put yourself out of your comfort zone!

Study in bits. Put aside time each day to study. That way you’re more likely to accumulate knowledge, and actually remember it. You might study grammar for half an hour, then vocabulary for half an hour later in the evening.

Practice using it. After all, you’re not learning a new language just to be able to write sentences with perfect grammar, you’re learning it so that you can communicate with others! Recruit someone from your class, or find someone in your neighborhood, who can practice with you. If you can, travel to a country where the language is spoken (for a study abroad program or a “home stay” exchange program).

Make it fun. Listen to music and watch movies that are in the language you’re learning. That way you’ll practice hearing and understanding, while doing something more fun than flipping through a textbook.

Remember why you decided to learn this language in the first place. It’s a good way to re-motivate yourself in those bleak moments when conjugating yet another irregular verb seems like it’ll be the death of you. If you give your studies a positive spin, learning a new language won’t seem like a chore.