There is no one-size-fits-all approach to language learning.

Available language methods:

• Textbooks with written exercises.
• An all-audio method like Language Transfer.
• An online language course taught by an expert teacher.
• A language tutor, where you book online lessons through Italki.
• Apps such as Duolingo, Memrise and Babbel, vocabulary-building apps such as Drops, a spaced-repetition app like Anki, or Lingualism.
• Lexilogos offers courses, dictionaries and resources.
• The Open University offers a free course on how to learn a language.
• YouTube and podcasts.

When you hit your goals and grow your knowledge of the language, it's time to find content that will help you improve.

• Consistently expose yourself to language that's just above your current level so your brain can fill in the gaps and raise your language level.
• Make the most of foreign-language TV shows and movies. Reality shows are easier to grasp and has some cultural benefits.

Intermediate learners often reach a plateau when the gains become more marginal, less immediately rewarding and harder to see.

Targeted and achievable goals will help with focus and motivation. If you are unsure what to do next, hop on a Zoom call with a teacher and ask them to assess your performance to point out what you need to work on next.

• Talk to yourself in the new language. Talk yourself through whatever you're doing.
• Keep a diary or notebook in your new language of events of the day.
• You can also record videos of yourself speaking the target language.