The first language you learn, your mother tongue, usually comes with little conscious effort. If you're lucky, you might even acquire more than one language in the so-called 'critical period' of language learning, believed to end sometime between ages 4-12. After that, it doesn’t come so easy, as you might have found out at school.

Something that might help is finding out about your learning style: are you a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner?

• The visual learner might benefit from writing down words and phrases over and over again.
• The auditory learner could gain from reading out loud or recording their own vocabulary lists and listening back to them.
• The kinesthetic learner may enjoy learning in a group, using flash cards or anything else that satisfies their hunger for 'experience'.

Finding what works for you could speed up your language acquisition - or at least make it more enjoyable!