Move to a new country.
Source: That's how I learned English.
(You asked for "best" way, not "the best practical way" π)
this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Technically the truth. I learned to talk with a proper Irish accent within a couple months. 15 years later there's nothing left of that, but for a brief moment in history I was cool.
Watch TV in that language.
Children's shows
soap operas, religious programming
especially if captions/subtitles are available
Comprehensible input! Start with simple content in that language you're trying to learn, without any use of languages you understand. And then try and actively understand what you're hearing, and work out how it all fits together!
It might be best to start with some basic grammar, phonetics, and vocab, especially with some languages, but comprehensible input is really the only right answer here.
It does take some dedicated study to get to a point where you can start to comprehend even the most basic content. If you just start reading/listening from zero, none of it will be comprehensible.
The goal for comprehensible input should be i+1, meaning you understand almost all of a sentence but one word or grammar point, which then allows you to work out the missing piece from context.
If there's a local community / cultural center, they probably offer classes or even immersion. My local mutual aid society has Spanish-immersion craft night once a week.
Try Language Transfer. I can't recommend it highly enough. It is just a set of MP3 files that you listen to. The teacher explains something to the student, and the student tries it out.
It sounds silly, but it works really well, and it is the best language resource I've ever used.
You can use them through SoundCloud (downloadable MP3s), YouTube, or with the simple but very effective app.
It's all free, although you are welcome to support the project with donations. I have been making a monthly donation for several years now.
Look up language exchange groups in your city
Basically you get together and you speak to each other
You will speak in the language you want to learn, and they will speak in English
And you will correct each other in real time and go from there
Look up community-made resources for the language you want to learn. Depends on the language, but you should be able to find plenty of great materials. Without knowing which language you're trying to learn, it's hard to give any better of a generic answer than that.
That said, flashcard apps like Anki are probably the single most powerful tool available, and vocab card decks will be the first thing you see at the top of those community resources. Any reason in particular you're averse to something like that?
You can find podcasts called "slow news" or something like that where they present the days news in the language your learning but take care to speak slowly and enunciate.
Good suggestion! Searching for "slow news (language)" worked for me.
Tv, short form media, game shows or even ridiculous things like kids shows. Is there e.g. a similar show to Taskmaster (or some similar show in your more familiar language) in that language. You will not understand all the entendres but will see a different kind of language structure that isnβt as linear as news, series or movies might have.
Assimil is a great way to throw yourself into the language. Each lesson is in the form of a conversation with audio and the pdf has the text along with the translation.
Listen to the lesson without reading the text first. This gets you used to the sound of the language. Then read the text, then text with audio, and finally read the translation along with whatever notes on grammar (don't focus too much on the grammar aspects when you are first starting out), neither on spellings. Later on you'll be asked to go back to earlier lessons and reproduce the text. The first phase is to internalise the language. You can read the recommended Assimil way of learning and adapt the steps to something that suits you.
Assimil works well along with Language Transfer for me. Assimil is more immersive while Language Transfer is more explanatory.
I find that music is also a great way for me to learn new words. Once I listen enough times to a song I like, I start humming along, maybe repeat a word or two. The important thing is to not stress yourself out trying to sing along to everything. Maybe there is a catchy chorus or bridge section that is memorable. That is good enough to form associations with words. In this, I find pop songs are a better genre because they are catchy.
Something else I do is have a notebook where the only rule I have for myself is: no using my native language. I try to explain new words to myself using a sketch or whatever basic words I have already learnt. Don't worry if you can't draw well, neither can I. But I can draw something that looks like a spoon or a hill. Then I label them, and bam I've already learnt two new words. To build on that, I can draw a stick figure on the hill - this has taught me the verb climbing. You get the general idea. Just don't stress yourself out trying to journal every new word you come across. Be creative and you'll have fun.
comics & graphic novels
Language Transfer, that someone else mentioned sounds good, have to try. I've just started using flash cards with Anki app.
I find Langenscheidt's language courses to be really good. They are pretty straight forward. If looking for a teacher isn't an option, I would go for those books + assimil till i master some basics and then I would jump on something that i really enjoy. Books, series, whatever.
If getting a teacher is actually on the table, I would look for someone that is eager to teach me only using the target language.
What is your target language and your mother tongue? Sometimes, language similarities help easing the way.