Speaking a second language is one of the greatest talents anyone can have. It opens up opportunities for new careers and new friends, as well as allowing you to travel to exciting and diverse places. Whether you have grown up speaking a second language, learned it in school or picked it up later in life, fluency in a second language is a significant asset.

However, if you are not required to speak your second language in everyday life, you run the risk of becoming rusty or even losing fluency altogether. Although being in regular contact with native speakers is without doubt the best way in which to maintain fluency in a second language, there are several practical approaches that can help.

The tricky thing about language retention is that it has to be a conscious act. Whereas, whilst living abroad, you are forced to hear and use a second language during everyday life, keeping up a language that you don't regularly use takes considerable time and effort. However, the benefit of familiarity with the language is that you do not need a teacher or the equivalent to provide any explanation. Language retention can be carried out on your own and at whatever time fits into your schedule.

The key element in preventing you from forgetting a language is exposure to it. This can be achieved relatively easily, provided that you have the time and motivation to apply yourself to it, by reading and watching material in your second language. In order to remain on top of the language, however, it is important that you expose yourself to unfamiliar and fresh content. Rather than simply reviewing the material you have already used to learn the language, immerse yourself in new material in your second language. This will challenge you far more than simply re-traversing already familiar sources.

To ensure that language retention is as effective as possible, work it into your daily or weekly regime. For example, you could buy a newspaper or weekly magazine in your second language; this will also keep you up to date with politics, social and economic matters in the country or countries in question, so that when you next visit, your knowledge of current affairs will be akin to that of a resident.

The internet provides instant access to material in any language; you will find countless items of reading material in your second language. You can even watch foreign television channels and listen to local radio stations on the web.

Another key element in retaining your second language is that of keeping up with idiom and modernisms in the language. Every language is constantly changing and evolving, with new words and meanings emerging. Once again, using current material should help in ensuring that your use of the language does not become outdated.

You will also find that as soon as you are once again exposed to a native speaker, your knowledge of the language will return far more rapidly than you may have imagined possible.

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