There are people who just love foreign languages and are good at them. For such folks learning a new language is a pleasure, they just tuck themselves in and enjoy every moment. But it can also happen that a person, while being good, for example, at maths, cannot learn a foreign language with ease. It becomes a problem, especially when you have to learn it for some reasons - working or personal.

However, there are some ways that can make studying of a new language more easy, natural and fun, spark your interest and prepare you for further, more serious learning.

1. Music

It's the simplest way. Try to look for some popular songs in the language you learn, find some you like most and upload them to your MP3-player. Finding a radio station can be useful too. After listening to the music you like for a while, you'll want to know what the lyrics mean, so you'll try to translate and thus learn some new words. Besides, listening continuously will make words settle down in you memory and they will be familiar when you see them elsewhere.

2. Movies

This method works almost as the one with music, but takes more time. First you can try watching movies in your native language with foreign subtitles, and as you become more confident, you can swap that by taking a movie in another language and adding subs in your own. You'll learn new words, grammar constructions and pronunciation, and you'll watch some good movies also. Just don't take only those meant for studying - they're supposed to keep your focused and rarely are relaxing. Such movies are good to watch at the lessons, not in your free time.

3. Chatting

Nowadays the world seems very small: you can have videochats with a guy from South Africa every day but at the same time know nothing about the one who lives next door. So just try to find someone whose native language is the one you're learning and just have some conversation with that person. Would be great to find someone who is studying your own native language too - you can help each other and maybe even become great friends.

If you're playing some MMORPG, like World of Warcraft, you already know what to do - find a guild with folks you need, set up a Ventrilo and just start raiding.

4. Hobby

Your hobby might prove useful in learning a foreign language too. First of all, it will help you to find those who have the same favorite pastime as you do; and second, you can learn more about your hobby and what it's like in another country. For example, if you like to cook, consider searching some new recipes in another language - not only will you learn how to cook a new dish, but you will also learn some new words while translating the recipe.

5. Blogging or twitting

With so many free blog services around you can make one for yourself within minutes. Try to blog in your new language. At first your posts will be short and simple, but as you learn, they'll become more detailed and interesting. You can start with a Twitter - it is a microblog service and every post there is no longer than an SMS message. Besides, people like when someone is learning their native language, so if you find some readers, they can encourage you and correct some mistakes too.

Those ways, easy though they seem, can become very handy. They don't require the concentration you need at the lesson, but their help is immense. I do hope it won't take you long to discover it yourself.

Natalia Veselova: freelance article writer and a professional translator.
http://nataliaveselova.weebly.com/