Writing in my native language to support and help correct any discussions.
I think one of the most difficult parts of learning a new language for people is maintaining persistence. You have to keep your interest level high to be able to turn it into a habit...and sometimes you just have to put yourself in a position where you're forced to learn it. What happens so often with many people is an intense learning period followed by a drop-off.
If you have the means to move internationally I'd highly recommend doing so. When I moved over to China and lived there for 3.5 years I was surrounded by the Chinese language. All of the street signs, the restaurants, the ads, were all in Chinese. When I went to the grocery store it was Chinese music playing. When I went to work, all of my co-workers were talking Chinese. You pick up the language and also an important aspect of language that you don't get by just reading books...you pick up on the cultural nuances of the language as well which are just as important as the language itself. You're also forced to learn to survive...It can be scary, but it was this experience that really provided a very high boost to my Chinese language level.
What has worked well for you? 欢迎大家讨论。
I agree with you, I think the "best" part is to be steady.
recently found a website called memrise.com
using it for now, a lot more fun than other video online course..
I do find the same problem, that is keep my motivation to the level i wanted to learn the language everyday. What works for me is, not speaking the language hit me really bad one day, then I was provoked to learn it. That won't keep long either..
so.. still trying to figure out a better way
I've enjoyed using the Hello Talk app with transliteration and translation built into the instant messenger.
I try to do something every day, but add some variety. For my Japanese, I use a couple of texbooks, some online tools, a video course and a podcast as well as a couple of apps on my phone. Sometimes I just Google Image Search random kanji when I'm bored.
I found apps to be better for learning kanji than traditional textbooks because you can test yourself, draw, look up many different combinations in the dictionary etc., much more instead of just writing it out over and over again hoping for the best. Plus, they're free for the most part. I'm still completely lost when watching movies, but it's a slow and steady progress.
When I'm done with a topic, I like to ditch one routine for a while and try a different approach to the same topic.
When I was living in England I just learned English through osmosis, though. Immersion definitely tops anything else.
