Learning a foreign language is not an easy task but, after years of struggling and frustration, I believe I’ve found the most effective way to do it. I can now speak Italian to quite an advanced level and I’d like to offer you a few suggestions as to how to give yourself the best chance of success.

The main thing is that you really need a teacher. While teach-yourself materials can be useful as back-up, they are no substitute for someone to talk and listen to you, to correct your mistakes and to explain why you should say it this way and not that. I spent a couple of years with a book and CDs but I didn’t get to grips with the language until I enrolled on a course (or rather, the right course).

If you want to know about science, maths or the history of art, books and lectures will take you a long way. It’s not the same with a language: you learn a language best by speaking it. For this reason, you need a very small class or, even better, one-to-one tuition.

Every Thursday night for 18 months or so, I went to Italian class at my local college. I learnt more than I had at home by myself but most people were coming just for fun, for something sociable to do, and progress was slow.

When I discovered a language school that specialises in one-to-one courses, I decided to give it a go - and I’m so glad I did! In just over a year, I’ve reached a level I never dreamed I would. The course goes at my speed and we talk about things I’m interested in, not just whatever is in the next chapter of the book.

Another major benefit of a one-to-one course is that you have some flexibility with the timetable. I’ve got a part-time job and three small children, and early afternoon is the best time for me to have lessons. It’s not easy to find a group that meets twice a week in the afternoons but if it’s just a question of co-ordinating with the teacher, it works very well.

It’s brilliant having the teacher to myself and nowadays we speak Italian almost the whole time I’m there. I’ve learnt to paraphrase and to be resourceful about making myself understood, which has given me confidence to start speaking even if I haven’t rehearsed exactly what I’m going to say.

So stop torturing yourself with self-study courses, miss out the large group and go straight for one-to-one lessons. An experienced teacher will get you speaking Italian in a shorter time than you might think. It has certainly worked for me!