With regards to languages (and learning in general) an outlook is so incredibly important, yet so many people overlook it. Personal experience alone has shown me that 30 minutes of excited study is more valuable than hours of boredom doing the same task. I think there are a number of other things that can help your approach as well, such as understanding a little of the science behind learning. I've written a bit about it here, and I'll be adding to the science on my blog soon: http://leavingblog.com/2010/07/learning-is-a-va…

Re your discussion of how to learn a language. The following comment may be viewed as going off on a tangent, but this is a site for the enthusiastic among us. In my case it's *why* to learn a language. I began teaching French in the mid-1960s and had the opportunity to attend, at an annual language-teaching conference, one particularly interesting presentation on how to keep teachers conscious of the difficulties of being a beginner. Solution: be a beginner yourself. Not just once, but once every five years, giving yourself a chance to delve more deeply into the new language and its grammar, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and of course culture. In my case it was first Hebrew, then German, then Russian, then Dioula – I happened at this particular moment (mid-1970s) to be a Peace Corps volunteer (the *ultimate* language experience, if you wish to make it so) in Côte d'Ivoire, a French-speaking country with a rather large number of indigenous languages. Dioula was chosen because it is a market language, and spoken to some extent by everyone in the country. Mind you, other than French, Dioula was the only language I had the opportunity to learn in-country, so vocabulary and conversational usage came very quickly. After Peace Corps came Spanish – practice anywhere here in the USA – and now Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua). Besides getting practice at any Chinese restaurant, I happen to work at a large tourist attraction, and am very conscious of visitors' accents. When a familiar accent is noted, I instinctively switch my speech to that language, and once the jaw drops, I get a little more conversation practice – and hopefully a bit of correction here and there, pushing my acquisition in the right direction.

Looking at the experience from the point of view of the foreign visitor, imagine yourself alone in Outer Slobbovia, not understanding a word of what people are saying. How would you react if someone came up to you, noted you were a foreigner, and in very broken English, asked how you were doing, how you were enjoying your visit, etc.? Quite a respite, to say the least, and you would appreciate *that* person's having taken the time to learn *your* language. Speaking another language, as a poet once put it, gives you a second soul, and even Napoléon indicated that knowing a second language made you worth two people to him. Don't give up.

For some of us, learning a language is a very enjoyable challenge, but without a foil against which to push, the “half empty” metaphor is the most apt. It's like attempting to become an excellent tennis player – you MUST play against someone who is better than you. To learn a language in a vacuum is enjoyable just up to a point, then you must fill your glass by pushing the envelope. This writer listens to the Pimsleur lessons on CD, imitates and repeats the tone cues, practices writing the characters (watching for graphic anchors), practices the tones, then goes to use the language in situation.

i'm heading to Czech Republic , which is a part of my nationality. I heard some of the locals do still speak Bohemian (before Communism)?

Random q: have you been to Javornice?

I'm from (and in) the USA, currently working on learning Japanese. It'd been on my “someday” list for a long time, but I just couldn't decide what language to start with – one that I hear constantly (spanish) or one that I am infatuated with (japanese). My heart won over my head, so this is my “no looking back” year – I'm gonna learn it!

Yeah, I've noticed the same pattern – I've just started learning Chinese and there is quite a few people asking: “Why? Chinese is hard” – as if they learnt a word in Chinese. Fist, I tried to explain that it is not that hard, in fact it is really funny, but after a few attempts I gave up. I won't invest energy into changing one's mind and attitude.

Enough for me to know that we know the right approach.