Best way to learn a language.

[Lollis]

Rosetta gets a lot of complaints as it doesn't teach grammar. It's more for tourist.

I can certainly vouch for this. I'm teaching myself Japanese with amongst other things the help of Rosetta Stone and some things just do not work properly when they explain using pictures. If I didn't already know that Japanese has different number systems when listing different items I would be really quite confused.

Rosetta Stone is quite a good program but it isn't perfect, it needs to teach you how to read and write instead of teaching you what things are called by image.

[Krawu]

The main reason I didn't bother to learn German was because I felt hey, why should we bother to learn a third language when they can't even learn a second? Why should we have to learn their language when I have no interest in even going there, thus causing a lack of motivation and no real attempt of even trying. (And no dropping the class was not an option either...)

I find this somewhat insulting. Being from Germany I can assure you that we do have to pick at least one foreign language at school, beginning with English and later having the choice of either switching to or adding another, among the choices being French, Spanish and Latin, some schools also offer Russian or Greek.

Many Germans don't master English to the degree most other Europeans do because we get practically all books, movies and video games translated and dubbed, but they do get along, and claiming we can't be assed to even study any foreign languages at all is just not true.

On topic: Study the basics, and then get out into the field - use what you have even if you make an idiot of yourself, it's part of the process. Frequent usage is the best practice. And remember that, unless you are part of some very small minority, learning another language will take a lot of time, possibly several months or even years until you are completely fluent.

[Rukentuts]

Learn syntax and conjugation. Vocabulary is easier to come by when you already know how you want to say it.

[Azutael]

As long as I don't need to memorize grammar rules and all that boring stuff, learning a language is pretty simple really. But I was never, and will never be good at grammar.

Basic understanding of simple and often used words does wonders, like learning how to write, read and pronounce them.

And when you got a decent understanding of that, you can start constructing sentences by yourself. They might not be 100% grammatically correct, but if you manage to make yourself understood, then it doesn't matter all that much.

Learning English was never a problem though, how could it be. It was all around me after all. helps that my mom was/is good at English, my bigger sister was as well. And my best friends mom was very good also. So I remember a lot of asking what things meant, for example when playing games. And they would read it first in English out loud to us, and then translate to Norwegian.
After a while you start recognizing words and their meanings, so less help needed. I bet my mom would get sick of the nagging sometimes.