The first principle for learning a language is focus on language content that is relevant to you. This is because attention, meaning, relevance, and memory are interconnected and especially important when it comes to learning.

The second principle is to use your language as a tool to communicate right from day one, as a kid does. If you're not using the language to communicate, you're not going to learn it.

When you first understand the message, then you will acquire the language unconsciously. This is really, really well documented now, it's something called comprehensible input.

Language is a creative process. What do babies do? OK, 'me', 'bath', 'now'. OK, that's how they communicate. So start mixing, get creative, have fun with it, it doesn't have to be perfect, just has to work.

If you look at how children and parents interact, you'll understand what this means. When a child is speaking, it'll be using simple words, simple combinations, sometimes quite strange, sometimes very strange pronunciation, other people from outside the family don't understand it.

at just connecting the new sounds (1073.668) to those images that you already have, into that internal representation. (1078.798) And over time you even become naturally good at that process, (1081.76) that becomes unconscious. (1083.582)

So, there are five principles that you need to work with, seven actions, (1088.374) if you do any of them, you're going to improve. (1090.937)

And remember these are things under your control as the learner. (1094.021)

Do them all and you're going to be fluent in a second language in six months. (1097.963)