So what's the best way to learn Spanish?

Go and serve the food mom
Que tengo ambre
If you don't hurry, me va a dar un calambre
Y usted seor, why's your chin on the floor
Sierra la boca por favor

What's this amor, these little huevos
Esto s que yo no pruebo

I'm used to good 'ol fashioned
Homestyle Spanish cooking
If I try that I'll be puking
Well it's been a pleasure but we got to go
Regresaremos temprano
Cinco, seis, o siete de la maana
Su hija esta en buenas manos

Google "learn spanish in south america."

Not too delicately phrased, but OTM for me. I worked as a waiter for less than 5 months and was easily conversational by the end. This was helped by my knowledge of French, though, and an eagerness to learn (never spoke English with the cooks). For understanding the lyrics to songs though, that's a lofty goal. I can't understand anything outside of choruses in the US top40...

'go to spanish-speaking country' really is the best crash course, when I visit my in-laws in Guatemala(oh yeah, helps to have spanish speaking wife) i'm conversational within a week but I also get to bug everyone with questions all day, I don't know if it's as efficient if you don't know anyone there. If it's just songs you're after, you might just want to crawl through a spanish-english dictionary when your song comes on, although none of this will help much with the slang and colloquialisms in reggaeton esp.

As for slang and colloquialisms, I figure that once I know the basic outlines of the language, the specific stuff like that will come via context and googling.

As for reggaeton lyrics, I think a lot of those aren't going to be showing up much in whatever textbook you might find..

That said, now I can't even remember how to tell the busdriver that I need a transfer ticket.

I listen to the Spanish radio station, but I can't figure it out since I'm still immersed in the English language. I catch the phone numbers and addresses ([Spanish blah blah blah] Little Rock, Arkansas [Spanish numbers]), but it's not going to happen that I'm going to understand it all while I'm still seeing billboards, business names, and time-and-temperature signs all still in English.

In the Chicago area there is the Spanish Language Center which offers varying levels of classes in groups and individually. Maybe there is something like that where you live.

Unless you are naturally gifted at languages, it will probably be hard to get actually conversational just listening to tapes, but I think tapes would be a good way to augment immersion/classes.

I reckon the best way to learn a language is take a methodical approach and learn a bit about the grammar - the building blocks - instead of taking a vocabulary-based approach (á la Rosetta Stone). Obviously, you'll need to learn vocabulary, but you need grammar to know what to do with it. For the absolute beginner, I'd recommend Michel Thomas' courses, which starts of with simple sentences then builds them up into bigger and more complex sentences, but somehow makes it seem really simple. It's not cheap, but, er, can be found on nefarious file-sharing sites.

i'd love to brush up on my spanish, but my attention span is horrible, so i'd have to trick my brain into learning with games or something really entertaining or some such thing.