To know how to roll your r's properly you really need to have been born either French or Scottish.  Only the French and the Scots know how to roll their r's properly, but there is a world of difference between the French rolled r and the Scots rolled r - a cultural divide.

The French rolling is a civilised European rolling, an elegant, sophisticated rolling which conjures up pictures of beautifully dressed and coiffured ladies walking down, or rather, sashaying down,  the Champs Elysees with a miniature poodle on a lead. The French rolled r is a chic rolled r.  It is the rolled r of Maurice Chevalier and of all the other Frenchmen who have broken hearts through the ages. The French rolled r is the greatest asset of the French when speaking other languages.  Their English is charming and seductive.

Learning how to roll your r's like a Frenchman is in itself an art form.  To roll a French r, the tongue is barely curved, it is kept free of the palate, the mouth is pursed into a sophisticated moue, and a gentle breathing emerges.  It is no accident that the French for 'to purr' is  'ronronner'  and you need to purr to produce the sound!  So walk around among your friends practising a gentle purring, noting how enchanted they are, and you are almost there.  Almost, but not quite.  You need to have been born French.

In Scotland cats don't purr gently - they puRRR.  This is the Scottish wildcat, - the only completely untameable mammal left in the British Isles.  Its purr, if the wildcat were capable of purring, would be a harsh, aggressive sound.  The Scots rolled r is a rough, unpolished r, the r of Braveheart and highland games and ear-splitting bagpipes.  This is a stone-breaker's, not a heart-breaker's rolled r .  Or, it is a cautious, prudent rolled r, much used in Edinburgh in the offices of 'Writers', which doesn't mean writers at all, but dry, careful lawyers.

Knowing how to roll your r's like a Scot is a physical exercise, not an art form.  You need to push the tip of the tongue up against the palate behind the front teeth and push the air out vigorously, causing the tongue to vibrate violently.  Practise this alone in front of the mirror.  Don't try it in company or you will frighten everyone away!  Really, however, you need to have been born Scots to roll your r's.

Knowing how to roll your r's is an essential part in learning any foreign language, esp. languages like Spanish where there are quite a few words which involve the rolling of r's. Many people believe that the ability to roll r's is a genetic thing but this is totally wrong. It is difficult to achieve this rolling if you have been speaking English all your life as the rolling involves the use of tongue and mouth muscles to quite an extent that is not needed while communicating in English. Nonetheless with a little practice and effort one can easily learn the art of how to roll your r's. The point is not to get frustrated if you don't get it at first and carry on with enthusiasm.

The first thing is to be relaxed. Don't get nervous as this has an adverse effect on the muscles of your mouth and will only hamper your efforts. So take a couple of breathes before you start practicing. Once you have mastered it such tensions don't matter at all.

Try listening to people who can fluently roll their r's. Try renting a Spanish movie CD or something like that and try listening as to how the mouth and tongue muscles roll when they talk. A language CD might also help you in this regard.

Now curl your tongue just behind the top of your gums and ensure that the tip is loose and is floating between the upper teeth and the hard palate. This is what is known as the alveolar ridge. This can be easily found by moving the tongue tip along the top row of your teeth.

Leave the tongue tip loose so that it can vibrate freely. Now blow out or breathe out air through your mouth so that you make a sort of “purring” sound.

Find list of words that need rolling of your tongue and keep practicing them slowly. Try word like “roller” and “ladder” and keep repeating them while feeling the tongue touch the tip of your upper teeth. Keep repeating these words everyday as an exercise.

The main part is practice. So keep on practicing whenever and wherever you find time. Don't worry about others noticing you. Just keep practicing as if no one's looking.

So that's about it. Just follow these steps properly and before you know it you would have mastered the art of how to roll your r's. This rolling gives a certain feel to the foreign languages. So go ahead and start rolling, if you already haven't that is.