[Jim14Qc]

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lol @ whoever said english was an easy language. Have you ever talked to a non-english speaker? I've never met one that said English was easy.

I'm fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, but it takes a long time to get there. You can get to a decent level in the classroom, but there's no way around just spending time with natives.

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English is easy. French is my first language and I'm currently in an English college in Quebec (Canada) and have found English much easier to learn than the language I'm working on right now, German. I'm perfectly fluent and most Americans don't notice it's my 2nd language until I tell them so. Unveiled brag. It's easy due to two reasons, one being that English material (movies, ineternet, books, etc.) can SO easily be obtained, and the second being that the structure of the language is pretty simple. Genders and other things of the like are not a problem in English unlike in most other languages. Def. one of the easier ones to learn (although Spanish, to a speaker of a Latin-based language, is even easier since its simplification in recent decades).

As for learning, I've had 4 ways:

- school. I was in a pretty advanced class for 5 years, it was OK, but def. not the best way to learn
- immersion. I went to a summer camp in Maine for 7 years, the first one I could barely speak and the last 3 or so I was fully bilingual. I'd say the 3rd year was when I was always comfortable.
- internet. I played online games (talk), read a LOT online (English), both formal and non-formal, etc.
- TV. watched tv and movies a lot in English.

I'd say that immersion is BY FAR the best and only a few weeks, once you know the basics (from school/tapes/etc.), are VERY beneficial. You need to be immeresed though, so more than 75% of the people around you need to be unable to understand your mother tongue.

If immersion is not possible, I'd say a mix of TV/movies/internet is pretty good. I'd start off by using Rosetta Stone first, it seems like a good software to learn (I'm just starting with it in German now) languages from scratch.

Good luck.


EDIT: books, once more accustomed to the language, are a great way to better your mastery of it.