Learning a language on your own is not an easy task.

Livemocha.com can help.

With the idea of a learning community, the Internet start-up from Seattle tries to connect people and help them learn different languages.

Being fluent in more than one language has becomes more important not only in business. Globalization requires communication and, therefore, an understanding of languages.

So far, six languages have been implemented on Livemocha, among them more difficult ones such as Hindi and Chinese.

The lesson is divided into three steps: learning, practicing and sharing.

The first step is to use different learning modules that are divided into levels of experience.

Afterward, the learned material has to be applied and tested. The Web site offers incentives by scoring points rather than grades.

In the following two steps, the community plays a bigger role.

At first, the user is encouraged to practice either recorded or written submissions. Certainly, the anonymity of the Internet helps in this step, because to be afraid to show one's skills to a critical environment is always a barrier in learning languages.

The third step involves sharing and tutoring.

Community members help one another in order to achieve good results. Tutoring is offered by native speakers as well as very advanced speakers.

Additionally, Livemocha offers community elements such as chatting and friendships among members.

On this site, getting to know people can help you improve.