My favourite way to get started learning a new language is using the "Pimsleur Method". These consist of completely aural courses with 30-45 hours of tapes in

My favourite way to get started learning a new language is using the "Pimsleur Method". These consist of completely aural courses with 30-45 hours of tapes in each language. There are no written materials whatsoever and this is intentional. Dr. Pimsleur's reasoning was that you should learn to pronounce and understand a language before learning to read it, lest you pick up bad habits which will be difficult to lose further down the line. The courses were designed to teach the most frequently used words in any given language (such as numbers, movement verbs etc.) through sample conversations and drills. Spaced repetition is used to enhance memory. From the wikipedia entry: "The student listens to a recording on which native speakers speak phrases in both the foreign language and the language used for teaching (usually English). At varying intervals, the student is prompted to repeat a phrase after the speaker finishes it. The student is then introduced to a new phrase and the meaning is explained. After repeating several times, the student is asked to repeat a previous phrase, along with integrating vocabulary from the new one. More new phrases are introduced, while old phrases are prompted at random, so as to aid long term memory." I highly recommend the courses, although the downside is that they ain't free.