This year, I have some crazy ideas.

A few days ago, I got notification of success on my Diplôme d’études en langue française B1 exam I sat in December.

I didn’t have much trouble with it (with one exception which I will detail later) and feel confident in scheduling my B2 exam for March, hopefully passing C1 by the end of the year.

“But Mary,” you might say, “what’s the rush?”

Well the rush is (embarrassingly) I have been “studying french” for 15 years. Before December, I last took a french exam in 2004- high school! But the progress I’ve made over the last few months has been greater than that of the past ten years. I am speeding along and I can give you the tips and tricks I’ve learned on the way. With some work, I should have no trouble passing my exams in a few months even without immersion.

You see, I’m not just working on French. I am also functional in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German, with bare bones Mandarin, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Classical Greek, Latin, and ASL. The learning curve for each of these languages is different, but the learning rules are the same.

So besides French, I’m hoping to certify two other languages this year- Italian(CILS) along with Japanese (JLPT 4kyuu) in December and possibly Mandarin(HSK) as well.

Languages interest me and always have but I haven’t always been good at them, and worse, I haven’t always been efficient. My mistakes, though, are your gain: after confirming my skills in a three-month backpacking trip through Europe, I consider myself a master language learner. Back home at last, I am on fire.

In this series, I hope to answer some of your common language learning questions and share my favorite tools and techniques. Some upcoming topics include:

•  How to keep things straight when learning multiple languages at once
•  The one first step when learning a new language to immediately improve your “native accent”
• How to master tricky new alphabets and non-latin languages
• How to efficiently incorporate media and listening into your practice
• Where and how to practice your new language as quickly as possible

I will especially focus on free tools, since that’s always my preference, but will also include those that give the best bang for your buck. Look for a list of these on my resources page.

Do you have any language tools or tricks you think are indispensable? Tell me in the comments!