Learning another language can be a lot of fun, but even reaching conversational level takes a significant amount of time and effort. The commitment language learning requires is part of why so many people who want to learn another language haven’t really started yet. If you’ve been hesitating to start learning a new language for fear of wasting time with the wrong one, here are a few things to consider.

Consider your Long-Term Plans
If you love the sound of French and find the culture interesting, it doesn’t matter that you can’t pick up and fly to France next week or even next year. As long as you’re fairly sure you’ll want to visit France some day, the time you spend studying the language will be worth it. This is particularly true if you’re considering a more widely spoken language. In that case, you may find a use for your language skills before you ever leave home.

Naturally, your career plans also come into play. Even if your career doesn’t require a second language, look beyond the obvious and you may see a need for one. An accountant doesn’t absolutely need to know another language, but in an area with a lot of Russian-speaking new arrivals, a Russian-speaking accountant will get more clients.

Let Interest Guide You
Aiming for fluency in a language that will further your career isn’t the only worthy language learning goal, though. If learning just enough to hold a basic conversation sounds more appealing, consider starting with any language that attracts you. Maybe you want to study Irish Gaelic because for whatever reason, you find it interesting. You might not be of Irish decent, work with any Irish people, or ever plan to visit Ireland, but if something about the language draws you in, why not learn a few phrases?

Hobbies are also a good source of ideas. A love of a culture’s literature, music or movies is enough reason to at least dabble in the language. Have a passion for Italian cuisine? Why not learn enough Italian to read recipes in the original. That way you can surf the Web and get Italian recipes straight from the locals.

Indecision or Procrastination?
Choosing a language that’s useful and interesting to you personally is important, but don’t let indecision hold you back from real learning. It’s easy to let yourself believe you can’t decide when in reality you don’t know where or how to start or you’re a little intimidated by the idea of learning a completely different language. If you’ve been deliberating between two or three languages that all interest you, just pick one, enroll in a class or pick up a good teach-yourself course, and get started.

Even if you lose interest in a particular language, the time you spent studying will leave you with potentially useful knowledge as well as experience that will help you learn other languages in the future.

Some people believe that learn French CD courses make it impossible to learn French accurately. More often than not, they have either not experienced any programs or only have experience with cheap 20-year old cassette courses. The truth is that new CD programs allow casual students of French to acquire the language in a variety of ways. For many, this makes learning the language quick and simple. These new programs work well alone or as an adjunct to classroom instruction.

Today’s CDs are greatly improved over the old audio cassette programs for learning French. They are even less cumbersome to carry around compared to those oversized cases of yesteryear. As the recordings are digital, the clarity of the voices is greatly improved plus you can quickly rewind and fast forward to easily review sections that you may not have fully understood the first time.

Instead of having to drive to a remote location once or twice a week, a learn French CD course allows you to learn anywhere at any time your schedule has a vacancy. Because of this flexibility, you can increase your learning speed by doing it every day of the week, never having to slow down for others who cannot grasp the concepts as quickly as you do. By the same token, if you need to review a section, you will not feel self-conscious having to review a section five or more times before the concept makes sense. Many learn French CD programs also provide better vocabulary builders than traditional classroom models, plus access to forums, quizzes and a hotline where you can get answers to any questions that may arise.

Because the price of manufacturing CDs and packaging is a large part of production costs, note that some of the available CD programs can have high price tags. So look around for a learn French CD class that is reasonably priced. Three hundred dollars should be average for a full program. Anything less probably means that the quality of the instruction has suffered as well.

If you find that even CDs are a little larger than you would ideally like to lug around, then consider downloading the lessons to an mp3 file to listen to on your computer or mp3 player. This is a simple workaround to match your lifestyle.

It’s quite clear that the new learn French CD programs offer a useful option for people on the run who are serious about learning French now. For a reasonable price, they often deliver even better lessons than typical language classes at your local high school or universities.