english language tips

My native language is English. I speak it with a fairly neutral British English accent, though this tends to change depending on who I'm talking to. I enjoy trying to mimic different regional accents, which is possibly one of the reasons why I developed such an interest in languages.
I grew up in Lancashire in the north west of England and used to have a bit of a Lancashire accent. Some of the characteristics of which include dropping initial Hs; short As (/a/ rather than /ɑː/), and substituting /f/ for /θ/ and /v/ for /ð/ in some words. So I pronounced bath /baf/, laugh /laf/ and heather /ˈɛvə/. I still do sometimes.
The first foreign language I encountered was Welsh: my mother's family are originally from south Wales and my mother has tried to learn Welsh a number of times, without much success. So there were Welsh language materials around the house and I picked up a few words and phrases.
At secondary school, Ripley St.Thomas, I learnt French, which was compulsory for the first three years and optional thereafter. I also learnt German, which I started in my second year, mainly because I thought it would be interesting, and partly because choosing it enabled me to drop metal work, one of my least favourite subjects. At the age of 16 I had to transfer to a different school, Ulverston Victoria High School, because I was the only person who wanted to continue studying languages. Ironically Ripley later became a specialist language college where you can study French, German, Spanish, Russian, Greek and Japanese.
After finishing school in 1988, I resolved to learn two languages per year: I thought 6 months was enough time to acquire a reasonable knowledge of a language. I spent a year working in various places in England, France and the Channel Islands. During this time I became fairly fluent in French, picked up some Portuguese and tried to teach myself some Italian, Icelandic, Japanese and Welsh, without much success, due mainly to lack of motivation and self discipline. At first I tried to study a bit every day, but after a week or two I started having days off from studying, then days off became weeks off until I gave up altogether.
Originally I was planning to continue my studies French and/or German at univeristy and possibly to study another language and a business-related subject as well. For reasons I can no longer recall, I decided on German and Swedish and was all set to study these at the University of Wales, Lampeter (Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Stefan).
Then I thought that my chances of finding a good job after graduation might be improved if I chose a more unusual language. I considered Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic and eventually decided on Chinese and Japanese, which I studied at the University of Leeds. During my second year I spent a semester studying Chinese in Taipei, another semester studying Japanese in Osaka, two months travelling in China and two months relaxing in Hong Kong.
After graduating from university, I won a scholarship to study more Chinese for a year in Taipei, during which I became fluent in Mandarin and learnt some Classical Chinese, Cantonese, Taiwanese and Korean.
When my Chinese course was coming to an end I was considering going to look for a job in Hong Kong or Singapore, but was offered the first job I applied for, as an Education Counsellor at the British Council, Taipei. In all I spent four years working for the British Council, during which time I was using my Mandarin all the time and learning more Taiwanese.
While working in Taipei, I also taught myself some Spanish and Scottish Gaelic, and some more Cantonese.
Since returning to the UK in 1998, I've taught myself Welsh, Irish and Esperanto; more Spanish, Scottish Gaelic and Portuguese, and bits of Italian, Arabic, Latin, Turkish, Hungarian, Urdu, Russian, Manx, British Sign Language (BSL) and Hindi.
Since 2005 I've been to Ireland every summer to study Irish for a week or two at Oideas Gael, an Irish language and cultural centre in Glencolumbcille in County Donegal. In 2007 I went to the Welsh language summer school at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and in 2008 I spent a week learning Welsh at Nant Gwrtheyrn on the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales.
In 2006 I discovered a useful site called Mixxer, where you can find native speakers of languages you're learning who want to learn your language, and then contact them via Skype. Since I added my profile to the site, and to a number of similar sites, I've chatted to people from all over the world. This is a great way to practice your languages and to meet people.
In July 2008 I moved to Bangor in North Wales, partly so that I could use my Welsh more often, and to do an MA in Linguistics at Bangor University. In September 2009 I finished my MA after writing a dissertation on the revival of Manx, which spurred me to learn more of the language.
While I was doing my MA I was a member of the Bangor Welsh Learners Choir, where all the songs and most conversations were in Welsh. This choir competes regularly in eisteddfodau (festivals of Welsh language and culture), and we won one of the learners' competitions at the National Eisteddfod in Bala in 2009, as well as wining competitions at local eisteddfodau on Anglesey.
In September 2009 I started learning British Sign Language (BSL) using online resources and books. So far I've completed one online course and could have a basic conversation, though have yet to meet any BSL users.
In May 2011 I started learning Hindi with an online version of the Rocket Hindi course, which I am enjoying and finding interesting and useful so far.
At the moment I often listen to radio stations in Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and sometimes also listen to radio in Czech, French, German, Mandarin, Cantonese and other languages. I read novels in various languages, especially Welsh, Irish and French, and sing in a variety of languages in the Bangor Community Choir. I also go to a French conversation group, and generally find whatever other opportunities I can to use and improve my languages. Occassionally I interpret between Mandarin and English.

In 1997 I felt that speaking 3 languages was not enough, and decided that speaking spanish fluently would be a nice thing. I already had some clear ideas on how to learn best languages, so I began to look for a self-study method of high caliber. I found an ad in the Economist which advertised for method written by the FSI, the language teaching arm of the US Department of State. They had one for spanish which I decided to try.

The thing looked pretty disappointing when I opended the parcel, 2 typewritten manuals looking like declassified documents from the 60's, and many, many tapes. But, as you know, the important is the content, not the form. I quickly realised that this method was a good example.

I started at lesson one, with the tape playing. It began :
Listen to this word :

papa
Listen to this other word :

papá
Can you hear the difference ?
Listen again :

papa

papá

The first word means potato and the second daddy. The only difference is in the intonation.

The tape continued its guided tour of the spanish language, very cleverly beginning by simple examples and then letting you infer the rule, then explaining the difference. I soon reached the end of the tape, thrilled by the ease with which I had learned by heart my first dialog. In the evening, I could not help but start another lesson and went on during the night, making those replacement drills at loud voice on after the other. At the end of the first week I was already able to make respectable small talk with perfect prononunciation (I was told so), and I had not written a single line and my eagerness to learn was not diminished my an ounce !

I went on and on, soon finishing the first book and moved to the other one. And then I stopped, having my exams to pass and then some travel to do. I stopped for about 6 weeks (I do not recommend it, but it happens) and then said to myself : Francois, you're really dumb not do it more seriously. You love this method and it's working. So I began again, but now at the increased speed of one lesson a day (recommended was one lesson a week). I took me 2-3 hours of careful study, with a part I could do while driving. At this reckless speed I soon finished the second book, and began to work on the 2 advanced tomes, which came with many tapes as well.

I realised that total fluency was not far from the last lesson, but that I still would need to talk with someone to check if my spanish was really functional and the king was not naked. For weeks I hesitated on the country where I would go, and finally decided for Mexico, the best blend I found of excellent spanish (unlike Cuba), very rich culture (unlike Chile), and relative convenience for the tourist (unlike Colombia).

When I picked up the phone to book a room in Mexico City, I did not even thought of what I was going to say. The spanish flew from my lips without hesitation, and the deal was closed.

In Mexico I found a woman who said she could give me some spanish lessons, a thing I wanted to do to ask some questions I had and make some specialised trade dialogs I could have to make in the future. She made a little test at the beginning, and soon let me lead the lessons as she did not find anything worth working on except some sporadic errors.

For two weeks I talked with the Mexicans about their rich story, current events, customs and culture, I read the national press, bought books and visited the country, all of this made possible by my self study.

So why is this story important to you ? It means that you can learn to speak spanish fluently by self study, learning at your rythm and in less than 6 months if you work 2 hours a day. I used a method created by the Department of State, and I'm not working in any publishing house. This is really my experience and I think it can be reproduced by any normally intelligent, motivated person.

This method has been developped to train diplomats before they went in Latin American countries, and was first published in the 60's by the Foreign Service Institute, the language teaching section of the United States Departement of State.

Tell me if you used this advice !