Ask HN: How to learn language?

I fyou don't have access to a native speaker, the next best thing is to practice with movies. Audio/video courses are no good because typically you are dealing with isolated sentences or very artificial conversations - you don't care about any of the imaginary people or their situations, so your brain is not doing any work to imagine what things they would want to say. Pick some English-language films you like a lot (because you are going to have to watch them many times) and watch them with subtitles in your own language, then subtitles in English, then without any subtitles. Practice repeating the dialog to yourself, as if you were going to do the work of an actor. You can also practice writing out some of your favorite parts.

Repetition has value, in the right context. The story and characters are easy for your brain to engage with, so they will function as a mental anchor for the more abstract patterns of grammar and correct usage.

Ah, but if you contribute to Wikipedia, someone DEFINITELY will correct your mistakes, AND in a way with rudimentary version control, so you can compare what you wrote to how it looks after the editors swarm in. Find a page on Wikipedia in your language about something that interests you and translate it into English. I personally use this technique to maintain & keep learning my (non-English) foreign languages, and if I can get a response from non-English wikipedia you can DEFINITELY get one from English Wikipedia.

Remember to try it the other way too, foreign language -> your language. Feedback isn't as reliable but it's a nice easy break and good for vocab/idiom acquisition.

Another thought... If you have trouble with active learning from language tapes, have you tried passive listening? This is where you just put on some background noise of people chatting in the language you want to learn (radio, podcast, Let's Play), maybe put some wordless music on over it, and then just listen for hours and hours while you work or commute with no expectation of understanding anything, like you're sitting in a coffee shop and the language is just washing over you. I've been trying this for a while and I do think it helps to improve the instincts & ear. Also anyone with an internet connection can do it, you can do it for HOURS at a programming job without anyone noticing, and it takes so little willpower (you just turn on the radio) that it's easy to maintain the habit over long periods of time. Most importantly, you can pick podcasts and games you are interested in... you're not just stuck with whatever boring situation is in the tape, like anigbrowl said. Maybe not as efficient as a conversation partner, but it's good for building confidence and good if you don't have a lot of time to ACTIVELY devote to language-learning. I'm not sure how well this would work if you knew next to nothing about the language in question, but that's obviously not your situation. So, yeah... maybe try audio again, but this time give up "trying". (: