Ask HN: What is the best process to learn a new language?

There is no one best way. Just get out there and start absorbing information. There is no one magical book, website, or resource that will make you fluent. I would avoid Rosetta Stone though(personal bias).

In my experience, the more exposure you get and the more variety you have - the easier it becomes to learn.

1) Use apps (Duolingo is my preference)

2) Read grammar books to learn and understand the underlying structures.

3) Read children's books when you have a big enough vocabulary from (1) and then advance to older books as you expand your experience.

4) Listen to media (Netflix, audio books, tv, radio etc). there should be a lot around you in Costa Rica.

5) Practice - use it as must as you can in every day interactions with actual speakers. If speaking with people in person is scary at first there are a number of services online you can find to match you up with a tutor/practice partner.

Anki flash cards used as described in this article https://qz.com/1211561/how-to-learn-a-language-use-spaced-re...

Im learning Macedonian in Macedonia s-l-o-w-l-y and have just arrived at this approach.

For motivation, keep in mind how much more you’ll get out of the conversations you hear and overhear!

Anki, Memrise or Duolingo, Pimsleur audiobooks, and Rosetta Stone along with having someone to interact with (which you have). I've been slacking but for Spanish I speak with my girlfriend (Argentinian, but speaks English fluently so sometimes I have to force her to use Spanish as she finds my Spanish frustrating) and coworkers. Trying to incorporate new words or linguistic concepts (tenses, idioms) into the conversation each week.

I picked up a frequency dictionary for Spanish and entered in the words from that into my Anki deck. I also got a college level Spanish 101/102 textbook to work through to reinforce the grammar. I find the grammar rules themselves stick well with the way my mind works (probably why I took to math and CS in the first place), though vocabulary requires the deliberate practice. So the textbook gives me the framework (grammar) to fit the vocab onto and I can focus on the vocabulary by itself having already (more or less) learned the grammar and syntax.

Others are saying avoid Rosetta Stone. I don't know, it was a gift to me from my parents. I have found it useful because it's so much already created verbal content so my listening (though not speaking) improved greatly by using it.

Memrise and Duolingo: I find these easy to use for a few minutes a day. I couldn't get anywhere near fluency doing just that, but it is good practice. Really nice for use on the go. I'll use it for however long I have between when I get to the gym (between 5:30 and 6) and my class starts (6). And a few other times throughout the day. I don't feel like I'm interrupting a lesson when I stop with it, it's just taking a break until I'm free again.

Anki is something I run through entirely in one go. I couldn't stick with it when I used it multiple times a day for fractions of the deck. I usually use it first thing in the morning.

Pimsleur also improved my listening and my speaking skills. I don't pirate it, I already subscribed to Audible and each month I get a credit which covers the cost of a week of lessons. Audible seems to have frequent 2-for-1 deals (use 1 credit for 2 books) so I've only paid for maybe half of them, if I count the subscription as part of my cost.

Big fan of the app clozemaster. Duolingo was great to begin with, but now seems so slow and has ads after every lesson. Clozemaster has a lot more variety in terms of vocab.

And it offers lots of different languages:

https://www.clozemaster.com/languages