Hola! Well, some people said to me if you learn a European language it should be Spanish – because it is the easiest to learn! (Well either Spanish or Italian) Anyway, after trying I can say I am not so sure about that! Learning any language is NOT easy, especially as an adult; so if you have children get them to learn a second language now and they will thank you for it in later years and it may open many doors for them – socially and professionally. :)

The best way to learn to speak Spanish is to go and live in a Spanish speaking country and to use the language daily, but if that is not an option then once you know the basics, finding a langauge exchange partner can help too (using email and/or Skype) Some good sites for this are: http://www.friendsabroad.com (free); http://www.language-exchanges.org/ (free); http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ (small charge); http://www.italki.com (free)
and http://www.sharedtalk.com/ (free).

Some other online sites I found helpful were the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
As for courses, for a complete beginner start with the free 6 part course at: http://www.rocket-spanish.org and also it is hard to beat the Michel Thomas cds: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071381643/bibs – I put the cds on my ipod so I can learn while travelling or walking (get fit and learn a language at the same time!) :)

Also if you live in a larger city check on http://www.Meetup.com to see if there is a Spanish language exchange in your town (or you could start one) also http://www.Gumtree.com has ads for in-person exchanges.

Hope that helps….....