4. Practise with someone online before you travel

One huge misconception in language learning is that the best way to learn it is in the country. I have met so many English speakers living abroad who learn nothing and gravitate towards other English speakers that prove this is far from true.

The trick is to hit the ground running, so you can already speak a little. Starting from scratch in a country is way more likely to lead to issues and giving up.

As such, you can speak every day right now thanks to Skype. My favourite is the site italki (friend me by signing up through http://fi3m.com/italki) that connects you with professional teachers who live in the country itself, so they charge you local rates, rather than in pounds for instance. I've even had excellent teachers in languages like Chinese for just ￡4 per hour!

Benny says that you must be prepared to learn 'Tarzan talk' - where the gist of the sentence is there, but perhaps the formation is not quite correct