If you have decided finally to try learning that language you have always promised yourself, remember your success is dierctly related to your enthusiasm. Even if you find it easy at first, do not become overconfident as at some point it will become tougher and you will not be prepared for it. One of the most popular language courses taken is that to learn how to speak Spanish as it is often considered the most useful after English. If you think you are too old to enroll yourself and be classmates with a bunch of teenagers well, then you can always apply for their language programs. From what I know, schools offer crash courses in different languages during school break, especially during summer.
Some corporate houses also offer courses, which enable you to speak Spanish, and these companies also offer you a job soon after finishing the program. You could also buy dictionaries from bookshops, which would help you to learn the language, in case you have a lack of time. You could also avail several self-help books, which contain Spanish phrases and sentences with simultaneous English translations written at the bottom. The Internet could also come to your rescue as Google and Yahoo offer lots of free tutorials. Teaching your self how to pronounce a word or reading a language is not the end of learning, though speaking Spanish should not be a problem since it is more based on phonetic. Thanks to the Internet, today web casts and pod casts can offer great help to you to listen to the language, and some sites are gracious enough to allow you to download it, so all you need to do is type and there you are!
Yet it is far simpler to learn a language if you listen to it so do not depend too much on books as there are plenty of materials for you to listen and watch, like songs, movies and tele-novels. Pictures are a great help since when you learn a Spanish word, you remember it better when you know what it appears like. If you have the financial resources as well as the time, there is no better way to learn a language than to be amidst people who communicate in that language all the time. Embrace their place and culture and I’m pretty sure you’ll be speaking the Spanish language in no time.
Just don’t pressure yourself as you often find the harder you try, the more you will end up getting frustrated. When one is in a Spanish speaking country, one cannot help but try to copy the accent and way of talking of the natives. It’s a big no-no and you will just sound funny if you do that but do not be afraid of making mistakes because when you are a beginner, what do you expect? In fact, you can only learn the hard way when you make mistakes, so be carefree, and enjoy your learning process throwing caution to the winds.