Learning to speak, read and write a language fluently is possible, on your own, in about one year and without much expenses. (See my own story if you want to know more). However, you must do it right or lose your time. Some basic principles are fundamental if you want to do useful work, so I advise you to read this page carefully.

In language learning there are two things you can't to without :

• Willingnessto work : You have to want to learn the language, not just wish. It's no magic power of the will, just that you will have to stuy on your own for some months, and everything will rest in your hands. For example, a speaker of a romance language (french, italian, spanish, portuguese, romanian, ...) can learn another in less than 200 hours. Yet he has to work during these hours, and if he's weak-willed he will probably stop after 30 hours, then go back, then stop again and never finish.
• An intelligent method : Many people study a language for years and cannot order a pizza in this language. If you think I exaggerate, ask someone who studied a language at school. So the second most important thing is to work intelligently, so you don't lose neither time nor energy. It' written nowhere that language learning must be painful, but it can be if you study stupidly.