I've specialized in DIY learning since the age of 15, and I am now entering my second year of college. I love linguistics. Sort of goes hand in hand with my major in general. I've always loved studying grammar, why we say the things we say, and how English compares to other languages. In particular, in high school I wanted to learn Japanese. The problem with wanting to learn a foreign language that my school didn't offer (I took Mandarin instead) was that I didn't have money to buy textbooks or Rosetta Stone or private tutors, and I had to do it all on my own. But, today I present to you my tips and tricks to start off on the right foot without making tons of blunders like I did!

So, when learning a foreign language, there are 4 main categories that need to be learned–

1. Writing. Depending on your chosen language, you can learn the alphabet or syllabary over a weekend or over years. For Romance languages, the alphabet is almost the same as English, just with different pronunciation (usually for the better, since other languages usually only have one way to pronounce a character in their language unlike English). For languages that use characters like Chinese or Japanese, it will take years to learn an amount of characters to fluency, especially with Chinese (Upon high school graduation, the average Japanese student knows about 1,850 Kanji characters, which is almost enough to read the newspaper, which requires knowing 2,000 characters. In Mandarin Chinese, you're supposed to know about 2,500 characters upon starting grade school).
2. Grammar. Grammar is probably the most important and the first thing you’ll want to learn, after learning your target languages writing and pronunciation system. What’s the point of knowing a bunch of vocabulary words without knowing how to make a sentence?
3. Vocabulary. This one probably seems the most daunting, but you will find that many words are words you may already know or are familiar with. I've found that the human brain has an odd way of connecting the dots that in some cases does the work for you, and using associations depicted with a word help us remember them or find a similarity to the English counterpart.
4. Culture. I cannot stress enough that you cannot learn a language without also learning the culture. If you learned purely vocabulary and grammar and could speak a foreign language flawlessly, but didn't know the nuances and common usages of words in today's society, you'd be a goner. A word that used to be completely normal can become an awful curse word or insult in a matter of a few years (for example, Google Tsutomu Miyazaki, AKA The Otaku Killer). That's why speaking to native speakers in your age group, watching current shows, or reading current events or books are so important. You NEED to learn modern culture in order to learn a language.

So, how is this accomplished? Well, read ahead!

READING.

Children’s books! They may seem silly, but it really helps to have a book you can actually practice actively reading and comprehending. It’s important to practice reading! It gives you a sense of the sentence structure and common phrases.

WRITING.

If you have a smartphone, you should activate the keyboard of your desired language under settings>international or settings>keyboard, or whatever your phone uses. You should also activate this on your computer. This way, you can practice writing by typing. I think this is especially important because as you type, you can see the suggestions that pop up, thus helping you learn vocabulary.

Handwriting is important, too. Seriously, try writing in it as much as you can. It's proven that handwriting helps retain memory better, plus it's always fun to translate your notes when you're bored in class.

It’s also important to practice writing because in character languages, one stroke, or line, can make a difference between “tree” and “butt” (okay, it’s not actually tree and butt, but that would be funny).

SPEAKING.

I know that speaking is scary and that there’s always the possibility of messing up, but you’re not going to get better by not speaking. Even if it’s embarrassing, try using it wherever you can, e.g. restaurants, markets, your friends’ step-grandparents twice removed, anywhere. Start simple.

Something that’s super hard to do that people practice for years is thinking in a language while they’re speaking it. Obviously, I wouldn’t expect that as a beginner, but it is a bit helpful to try thinking more in the desired language's grammar mindset than the oh-crap-gotta-convert-this-English-sentence-to-insert-language-here mindset.

LISTENING.

A lot of people find it kind of creepy (imagine that) when you just listen, but listening is super helpful. It’s even better if you can get involved in the conversation. Try to identify words you recognize and guess the context of the topic based on the person’s body language, tone inflictions, and facial expressions.

A good suggestion is to watch shows or movies in your target language. Even kids shows can be helpful. Many say that watching adult shows do one more harm than help, but I think it’s a really good way to learn colloquial speaking while watching a show that actually engages your interest. In the beginning, you obviously cannot understand without subtitles, but as you become more proficient you should be turning the subtitles off and be doing the guessing of body language technique. Besides, at this age, you need to learn how to speak like an adult, not a child.

I think it’s better to watch and listen rather than just listen, because then you’re definitely unaware of the context and you won’t actually learn anything.

Here's a list of resources to use to help yourself learn-

Memrise- A really useful iPhone app and website. It uses mnemonics to remember vocabulary and tests you on words regularly. The downside is that it’s usually only good for vocabulary.

Free Online Textbooks- This is actually what inspired me to start my own blog to teach on. There are A LOT of people who run bilingual blogs and websites just to help other people learn their language. There are a lot of PDF's to be downloaded, from textbooks to workbooks, and they're always useful.

HelloTalk- This is unfortunately only for the iOS or Android devices, but basically what it is is a large network of people who are all trying to learn a language, whether it be English or Japanese or Spanish or Arabic or even Chippewa. The idea is for native speakers of one language to add native speakers of the language they’re trying to learn and then help each other. It’s a really neat app. You can learn your desired language while also helping someone else learn English! I like to narrow down searches for new friends by people in my area so I can make more local friends. The downside is that the app is slightly inconvenient and not that popular.

Lang-8- This website seems daunting to learners, but really, anyone can use it. This is basically a social network. Users post in the language they’re learning, and other native speakers correct it. I’ve found this extremely helpful. You can even add certain corrections and tips to a notebook so you can remember them! You basically make a diary entry. You can write in your native language, too, as long as you also wrote in the language you’re learning. This way, bilingual speakers get a better idea of what you’re trying to say. Talk about your weekend, your family, even your favorite food, as long as you're practicing you're learning.

Bilingual News Podcasts or Shows- This is one of my favorites. It’s really fun to listen to. For my language, I have a weekly podcast by 2 bilingual speakers of Japanese and English. They usually talk about current events and science news and stuff, and go off on a lot of tangents. It’s good for colloquial speaking practice. It won't be available for every language, but I know most European languages have something similar.

An Online Dictionary Database- This is basically a dictionary, but with so much more. Only rarely will I look up a word via Google Translate over this. The website for my language, jisho.org, provides the kanji, furigana, information and details on the word, what JLPT level it is, whether it’s common, and TONS of example sentences for each word. You can search terms by radicals (pieces that make up a character), too! I love it for the breakdown of it’s place and usage in modern society and how to use it in a sentence.

Some Sort of Grammar Database- Lots of languages will have websites with short and to-the-point explanations of little grammar facets in case you forget or don't understand. If you can't find one for your language, start your own.

Duo-Lingo- This is a free app and website that has language courses for just about every common language (they don't have English to Japanese, but they do have Japanese to English). Most of them will have an English to _______ course, and this helps with pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. It's a really great app for Romance languages!

HiNative- Got a quick question? HiNative is a smartphone app created by Lang-8. Basically, you post a question, and native speakers give you an answer, and of course you should return the favor. It’s the Yahoo! Answers of languages. Really good for answering relatively simple questions or asking how to say a particular phrase.