I like everything that has to do with the learning process, and there is a tip I find usefull when it comes to start learning another language. Is a very simple observation I like to share with everyone I know is going through such process. I've used it many times to help spanish-speaking people that's learning english, and also tourists that wants to learn spanish, but I'm sure it can work for any language and in any direction.
I'm from Venezuela, and my native language is spanish. In South America, learning to speak english is a very important thing, but there is an issue I've seen that blocks most of the people in the process, the shame.
The teaching process we have in our schools is very mechanical and poorly efficient. It gives too much importance to reading and writing, and does not focus enough on the pronunciation. This makes students to feel frustrated and confused when they nottice they can't reproduce the sounds of the written words, and most of them quit before starting.
We might not remember our own experience when we larned our native language, but if we see any parent teaching their sons how to say "mommy" or "daddy", we easily can nottice how they exaggerate the way they modulate, so we can start following their direction till we are able to reproduce the sounds they are emiting throug their mouths.
At the beginning, we are just repeating "meaningless" sounds, and then we start relating those sounds to objects (or to persons when it comes to "mommy" and "daddy"). Then, only after we are able to communicate verbaly, we start relating those sounds to the writen code, letter by letter, so we start learning to read. And then, we start reproducing those letters on paper to start writing.
If we really want to learn another language, we have to understand that the first and most important thing we have to do is to listen conciously the sounds of that lenguage's words and sentences so we are able to start reproducing them as precisely as we can, and for that, we will have to move our faces as it never had before, and we might feel stupid for a moment, but it will all go better if we start having fun with it, or even more, if we start taking it as seriously as we were learning quantum physics.
I remember that I learned engligh when the first CDs came out with their "song books" (what an oldie, right?). So I were able to repeat the pronunciation as I were hearing the song and reading the lyrics. At first I didn't knew their meaning, but at least I started recognizing wich sounds corresponded to wich words, and then I'd look for them on the internet to start understanding their meaning.
The song lyrics are the best when it comes to learn vocabulary and even the conjugation of verbs, becase there's alway someone that "broke" someone else's heart, and some others wich hearts "will go on". (I'm sorry for those terrible examples) x'D
As a plus, I'm giving you here, the link to "the world's biggest collection of song lyrics and musical knowledge", where you can find the original lyrics of an impressive amount of songs with translations to multiple languages.
So remember, if you want to learn another language, start modulating as if your learning depended on that, because it does!
I hope this helps!
See you around!
Any constructive criticism o suggestion in the comments will be welcomed and gladly upvoted!
I'm still a minnow and learning how to formally write in english, so if you have any important correction for me, I would also appreciate it.
Don't forget to upvote if you like this post or if you find it useful.
Thank you!