Here are my suggestions for learning a language: 1) spend a lot of time listening to conversation, especially daily conversation. Listening to the radio in your language of study is a good idea because you will hear natural conversation. 2) try to find people to chat with on the internet so that you practice typing the language as well as see new words that you can look up in online dictionaries. 3) try to make a true friend who is a native speaker in that language, and try to talk to them a least once a week or more. you need to be outgoing to make new friends. 4) whatever interests you in your native language, try to find the same material about the culture of your second language. for example, i am interested in poetry and philosophy, so i like to read english translations of chinese poetry and philosophy. i am currently studying the Dao De Jing in Mandarin with italki tutors. 5) in many languages, listening-speaking-reading-writing, are completely separate skills. you would do well to remember that and think about how what areas you should put most of your energy into. 6) find music that is fairly slow in the language you are learning and sing along. this helps a lot with intonation and accent of the second language. 7) repetition is the most important thing to do when you try to get good at anything. what are you going to do over and over again to get good at your language of study?