You can’t passively learn a language and expect fluency in it, but you can boost your understanding in creative ways. Which is to say, you’re probably not going to learn complex verb and tense rules with these methods, but you will significantly boost your understanding. The idea here is to make you house and gadgets speak to you in as many ways as possible and to surround yourself with a new language without disrupting your daily activities.

If you’re concerned that you’re an old dog who can’t learn new tricks, don’t be: Studies have shown that adults can pick up a second language with considerably more ease than most of us think. Even if it has been 10 years since your high school Spanish class, some of that knowledge is still stored up. If you didn’t take a foreign language, consider learning a language that you’re geographically embedded in already. Spanish, for instance is a snap in the southwest because there are plenty of Spanish language grocery stores and restaurants in the area. You might find another language in your area easier to embed yourself into, but if you’re surrounded by foreign speakers, it’s an easy way to pick which language to concentrate on.