Studying a language in a foreign country is fun, exciting, challenging and sometimes frustrating.  Lynne Davis has fifty tips to help keep you on track

1. Make a plan.
2. Never miss a class.
3. Label everything in your room or apartment.
4. After you get a basic vocabulary, you can build on what you know.  One part of a word appears again in another.  Make the connections. 
5. Speak half one language, half another, if you have to, until you get it.
6. Carry a pocket dictionary—and don't be embarrassed to use it.
7. Read something short—signs on the street, newspaper headlines, comic books.
8. Everything you do is a language-learning experience.  When you go shopping, it's a vocabulary lesson. 
9. Take risks.  Go out and say something!
10. Three useful expressions:   Thank you, I'm sorry, I don't understand.
11. Sometimes just listen, expecting nothing, not trying to comprehend.
12. Find what works for you.  It's different for different people.  If you learn from studying a grammar book, do it.  If conversation comes more easily, focus on that.  Any studying you do will help with other parts of the language.
13. Choose one activity and do it consistently.  Write in a diary; watch a weekly sitcom; use flash cards.  Whatever it is, just do it and keep doing it—and you will see results!
14. Relax.  Have fun with the language!
15. Celebrate small victories—the first time you understand a conversation, for example.
16. Aim high.  But don't expect perfection of yourself.  You will be disappointed.
17. Keep a diary.  At first it will be written mostly in your first language.  But you will begin to add words and phrases in the new one.  Gradually, the balance will shift, and more of it will be in the target language.  (And what a souvenir you will have!)
18. Tomorrow will be better.
19. Repetition is useful and important.  Use the same language over and over.  Reread a book or story.  Replay a video.  Each time, you will learn.
20. If you really want to communicate, use the words that you know.  Simplify.  Substitute, if you don't know the exact word. 
21. Learning vocabulary in sets is helpful—shopping words, similar-sounding words, opposites.
22. Speak the target language with your classmates, even those from your own country. 
23. Be a parrot!  Imitate your teacher when s/he says a difficult sound.  Mimic people on TV. 
24. Listen for common phrases.  You will get a feel for them, rather than learning them from a book.  Pretty soon, you'll be using them too!  That's part of the magic.
25. Give yourself credit for every small thing.  Don't tell yourself, that's not much; I just asked for the time of day.  Give yourself credit.
26. Expect setbacks and small humiliations.  Let go of them fast, and get back on your path.
27. Take every opportunity.
28. Review!  You'll be surprised at what you've forgotten.
29. Review!  You'll be surprised at what you remember.
30. Review!  You'll be surprised at how easy something seems that was difficult at first.
31. Sometimes you can just watch TV.  Or flip through a magazine.  Or listen to music.  And you are studying!
32. Don't be shy—even if you are.
33. If you don't understand, you can always smile!
34. Bring a list of key words—even a script--to the post office, the bank, the grocery store.  You can keep it in your pocket and pull it out if you need it.
35. Find someone you feel comfortable talking to.  It could be a classmate or teacher, a neighbor, a clerk in a store.  Talk to them regularly.
36. You can tell a taxi driver where you want to go.  You can order something at a restaurant.  Take satisfaction in your new abilities! 
37. Learn common phrases.  Say good morning and hello.
38. Buy a CD.  If you like a song, you will listen to it a lot and remember it.  You will learn some grammar and vocabulary, easily.
39. Your friends at home might say, "So, you've been there x months.  Are you fluent yet?"  Ignore them.  They just don't get it.
40. When you're buying bananas, you can hold up three or four fingers.  But if you know how to say it, say it.
41. Don't compare yourself to others. 
42. Everyone needs to be able to play with the language.
43. A native speaker who can't understand you might give up and turn away from you.  Don't take it personally.
44. Carry a small notebook.  Write new vocabulary words in it.  Study them when you're waiting in line.
45. It's like a picture puzzle.  First, the pieces will come so slowly and randomly.  Later, new ones will fit with the old.  Suddenly, whole sections will come into view.
46. Remember, it's a learning experience.  You're making mistakes, but you're learning; that's the important thing.
47. It feels great to share a joke across cultures.  And sometimes you really need the humor of your own culture.  It's good to have friends to laugh with.  
48. Break it down.  You don't have to learn everything at once.  Study the TOEFL for fifteen minutes a day.  Small pieces add up.
49. You will make mistakes.  People will be impossible to understand.  Don't let this get you down.  Cry if you need to.  Then try again.
50. As Winston Churchill said, "Never give up!"

Lynne Davis teaches at the Center for English as a Second Language at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois