Enrol in a language course at your local community college. Lessons are taught in a traditional classroom setting or online through a distance learning program. Credits earned at a two-year college can often transfer to a university to further your education.
Obtain Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification which allows you to teach English abroad. Choose a teaching assignment in the country of your choice and learn the language at the same time. You do not need to be a teacher to qualify, just take the certification training which is about 120 hours of instruction and 20 hours of hands-on practice.
Buy software such as "Rosetta Stone" to help you learn a new language. Learn at your own pace by purchasing one level at a time. "Transparent Languages", "Rocket Languages" and "Tell Me More" software programs also teach a variety of languages. The average cost of most level one programs is $249.
Hire a tutor for private lessons or ask friends or relatives who speak the language you want to learn to teach you. Once you have learned some of the basic phrases, join a cultural progam where you can practice with native speakers.
Borrow language audio tapes from the public library and listen to them while traveling to and from work. The library has many free resources available such dictionaries and phrase books that can help you to words and their meanings.
Watch television programs online. Many Internet sites have television programming from other countries. You can watch programs in German, Chinese, Spanish, Dutch and a number of other languages. It helps to hear the language spoken with the correct pronunciation by native speakers. The more you hear the words spoken, the more familiar they become.
Read online publications and news articles with Google Translate once you have a basic understanding of the language. Read the articles in their original text to test your comprehension then translate them to see how well you did. Copy the text and paste into the text box, set the languages and click on "Translate". The "Google Chrome" web browser features automatic translation for any web page.