Use Pimsleur's language-learning program. I learned Spanish to a moderate degree with Pimsleur's programs, and I also learned some French. Planning on taking o

Use Pimsleur's language-learning program. I learned Spanish to a moderate degree with Pimsleur's programs, and I also learned some French. Planning on taking on Russian and Chinese some time soon. I highly recommend the Pimsleur method. I don't have much experience, but I did try the Michel Thomas tapes before it. The difference is that Michel Thomas teaches the rules of the language (verb conjugation, etc.). Pimsleur doesn't ever, ever go there. The whole Pimsleur course is built on speaking in the language and you saying sentences in the language, over and over again. It never tries to analyze why things are said a certain way, it trusts you to just learn by rote repetition the important words, and slowly begin to develop an ear for how the language works. This is how languages are learned naturally when growing up, and I found that it works brilliantly for me. One thing though: with Spanish, I have several people I can regularly converse in Spanish with, which is very helpful. If you don't, you'll probably have to do other things (like read newspapers in the language, read books, etc.) to make up for it.