So I looked and while there are a lot of resources for learning languages, there's no real guide or set of tips for someone to follow when learning a new language.

Currently I only speak English well enough for conversations although I remember a bit of French from my school days. Enough to buy a beer, train ticket and an ice cream. And the pleasantries of course.

Right now I want to learn Polish, which is to my knowledge one of the more challenging languages to learn.
I have always wanted to learn Polish (family reasons and stuff) but last time I attempted it, the grammar completely threw me off.
Now I'm with a Polish girl and I can sorta see this one lasting a while, which would suggest meeting her parents at some point. Her parents don't speak a word of English so this means in order for me to avoid sitting there nodding and smiling like a little retarded child, it would preferablt to learn a reasonable amount of the lingo!

What I am asking for is a rough guide of where to start, what to aim for and how to study smart. Not necessarily for only Polish but for any language.

Well, here's a basic guide that'll give you a good method: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/guide/index.html

Basically a multi track approach. Immersing yourself in the language as much as you can, and seeing it in terms of man hours.

You should first and foremost have a real desire to pick it up, it is the only thing that'll sustain in those dark days.

What you should get for sure is something that makes you practice speaking and hearing the language. You should procure Polish Rosetta Stone, and Polish Pimlsuer (which I think is only 15 lessons). Personally I found the Pimsluer little use. I could hear the sounds as they pronounced it sound by sound going backwards, but when they went forward in real time, I couldn't hear any of the sounds I was previously mimicking. Not for every word but enough that I abandoned Pimsleur in the first lesson. Maybe you'll have a better ear for it.

What I did find useful was having a Polish girl teach me how to say Polish words. You already got one, so you might find making use of her as a resource your best source for conundrums or making sure you are pronouncing things in an understandable manner.

This book (http://www.amazon.com/Polish-Verbs-Barrons-Klara-Janecki/dp/0764110209/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1_rsrssi0) I also got some use out of, but as it stands, mostly for the pronunciation guide in the front. There are some sounds in Polish that are a little hard to reproduce (again maybe you'll have a better tongue for it). Though the book in and of itself might not be a bad investment.

You can buy Polish language dvds here (http://www.deepdiscount.com/Polish_stcVVcatId463609VVviewcat.htm).

As for a definitive method, I don't know, I'm still learning. Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot for that mate. It is of great use to me.

The pronunciation side of things I'm okay with. Been able to pronounce Polish words quite well since I was a kid reading the alphabet my uncle wrote out for me. I've gotten many compliments from people on it.
It's just the vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures that are pretty daunting at the moment.

My girlfriend is more than willing to help me out but in a somewhat typical English fashion (I had to pick up something of English culture!) I feel stupid making mistakes when it comes to speaking.
Like I said, I can say things in French but if I say something wrong to a French person who speaks English and he says "Pardon?", I get pretty self conscious and stressed and I'll be like "Fuck...I said can I have a glass of water please...Shit!"
It's a wall I have to knock down obviously but it's not going to be fun feeling like a prick. Especially in front of my girlfriend!

I have the Rosetta Stone thing...Sounded pretty good when I was taking a look so I'll be giving that a bash. Only thing is it's telling me how to say ball and aeroplane before the usual type of stuff you'd learn first. But they must obviously know better than me if they're selling these things for £60 or whatever!

But yeah, thanks again mate.

Killing your self consciousness will be a big help. That's actually one of the big things that my teachers drilled into me (3rd year of a bachelor of arts, in languages and applied linguistics).

My advice is to start using it with your girlfriend at every opportunity, even if you only know two words from the sentence you want to say. "Oh look, there's a kot chasing a szczur." tak instead of yes etc. Make sure she corrects you when you're horrendously wrong.

Circumlocution is your friend. You might not know how to say 'coca cola' but 'sweet brown drink with bubbles' could be within your vocabulary. It's a bad example, but situations like that crop up suprisingly often.

When you can, think in Polish.

I'll see if I can find some of the online resources they gave us on the subject.

EDIT: They've taken the original files down. I probably have hard copies somewhere but they could take some finding.