Learning a second language is never easy for the simple reason that it is exactly that a second language. Ninety-nine percent of the time and, of course, barring the existence of congenital speech defects, the difficulty of learning a new language is brought on by the learners adherence to the conventions and practices of his first language, his native tongue. Conflicts in pronunciation, vocabulary, usage, intonation, manner of expression, even understanding of concepts, therefore arise. A perfect way to test this fact is to have a simple statement in English read by a Frenchman, an Italian, a Russian, a Japanese, a Portuguese and a German. See how many versions of the same statement in English you get!
The best thing to do in learning a new language, therefore, is to start fresh. Try, even temporarily, to suppress whatever conventions you are used to with your native tongue, and learn from scratch. While this is easier said than done, it is crucial to the process of learning a new language. You may also apply the following proven techniques:
1. Understand the languages basic sentence structure. Regardless of what language it is, its basic unit of thought will...