Learn A Language

1. To change careers or career advancement. Languages are in demand for jobs posted on recruitment sites.

2. To travel and/or studying abroad. Being comfortable with languages that are spoken in countries in which you travel and/or study can keep you safe and improve your experience.

3. For Emigration. Relocating to a different country that speaks a different language can be very challenging and picking up on the countries native tongue can greatly benefit your experience and comfort levels.

4. To strengthen family friendships. Speaking similar languages can deepen a relationship or maybe you would just like to communicate secretly with each other

5. To get in touch with your roots/ Culture/Religion - many cultures & religions can be better understood through study it's original language.

6. To Challenge yourself. Keep your mind healthy, in fact, learning a second language has been proven to delay the onset of dementia.

1. Usefulness - How useful will the language I learn be to me?

Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the USA after English, with close to 30 million speakers. The third most spoken language is Chinese. (mainly Cantonese) with over 2 million speakers. Other languages with over a million speakers include French, German, Vietnamese and Italian.

2. Difficulty - How difficult will the language be to learn?

Each language presents you with a different set of challenges. Generally the more a language differs from your mother tongue or other languages you know, typically the harder it is to learn.

For English speakers the least difficult languages are probably: Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.

The most difficult languages for English speakers, and indeed speakers of most other languages, are Arabic, Korean, Japanese and Chinese.

3. Passion - How passionate are you about learning that particular language?

You must really want to learn a new language and commit to practicing a little every day to fully grasp a full understanding of any language. It also takes ongoing practice for years to fully master another language and if you are not passionate about learning a language the likely hood of you become fluent in the language you have chosen is not very high.

1. Study every day

* Try to set aside some time every day for your studies.
* It's better to study for 10 minutes every day than for 3 hours once a week.

2. Revise/review regularly

* Go over each lesson several times, perhaps once in the morning, once in the evening and once several days later.
* Give your brain time to digest the material, but make sure the gaps between periods of study are not too long.

3. Build on solid foundations

* Make sure you're comfortable with the fundamentals of the language before tackling the more advanced stuff.

4. Set yourself goals

* Setting reasonable goals is a good way to motivate yourself.

5. Don't be discouraged by apparent lack of progress

* You will find that at times you're making fairly rapid progress, while at other times you seem to standing still or even going backwards. This is normal when learning a language, so don't be discouraged.
* Find ways to make language learning fun. This could involve games, songs, stories, tongue twisters, jokes and anything else you can think of.

6. Audio magazines

* Once you have got to grips with the fundamentals of a language, a great way to improve your reading comprehension and increase your vocabulary is to subscribe to one of the audio books and magazine in other languages.
* You can find out more at: www.audible.com

Rosetta Stone is the chosen software used by NASA and has been adopted by over 10,000 schools world wide. The website has an excellent section called 'DEMO' where you can pick from a few languages and give the software a try.

They offer a 6 month money back guarantee no questioned asked. And we quote 'Every Rosetta Stone CD-ROM is backed by an unconditional six-month guarantee. If you're not satisfied with the progress you're making, they will return your money, no questions asked.'

The software works on both PC's and Mac's. Rosetta Stone offers courses in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandrarin), Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English (US), Farsi (Persian), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italalian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Welsh

Further information about Rosetta Stone Learning Language Courses can be found at: www.rosettastone.com

Transparent Language provides language learning solutions to the consumer, education, government, and corporate markets. Since 1991, Transparent Language has helped millions of individuals learn new languages quickly, easily, and effectively. Transparent Language's products are also used in more than 12,000 civilian and government educational institutions, including major universities and government facilities, such as the Defense Language Institute and Foreign Service Institute.

They use a teaching system called 'Before You Know It' which consists of audio and photo flashcards. This can be used on any PC, Mac, I-pod, and MP3 Player. They have many learning levels from beginner levels to advanced levels. They offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all their products.

Transparent offers courses in the following languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Asturian, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belorussian, Bemba, Bengali, Blackfoot, Breton, Bulgarian, Canadian French, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chinese, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Ecuadorian - Quechua, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Farsi, Finnish, Flemish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Guarani, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Inuktitut, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Kongo, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luganda, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Maori, Maya, Mohawk, Nahuatl, Norwegian, Papago, Pidgin English, Polish, Portuguese (European), Portuguese (Brazilian), Provençal, Quechua, Romanian, Romansch, Romany, Ruanda, Russian, Samoan, Scottish, Sepedi, Serbian, Shona, Sicilian, Slovak, Slovene, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Thai, Tongan, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvan, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, and Zulu.

Further information about Transparent Learning Language Courses can be found at: www.transparent.com