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My Method Of Learning Languages

This is the method I use (roughly). I feel like this is the best way that works for me so far. You can probably accelerate it and learn a language faster. I'm going to update this page as I learn more.

The method consists of different stages that you should perform consequently. Time spent on each stage depends on your individual speed (could be less than 2 months each if you want to be fast). The last stage is just about continuing your learning forever.

1. Phonetics & reading. Learn how to read. How do people pronounce letters and various combinations of letters? Pick a random word from a dictionary, try to read it out loud. Then check yourself using some sort of text-to-speech program or by asking a native. Repeat that until you can pronounce about 80% of words correctly. This step takes more or less time depending on the writing system, of course. Not sure if this step is applicable to learning Chinese and other languages with non-phonetic writing systems though. In this case, just do some basic pronunciation and phonetics training, make sure you at least understand the set of sounds your target language has.
2. Learn the basic vocabulary as well as some general link words&frequent phrases that you use in your native language (for example the phrases like "for example", "something like that", "kind of", "and so on", "by the way", etc). The basic vocabulary will allow you to understand at least something in the language and the fillers will make you construct sentences faster and make you sound more fluent even at a beginner's level. This may look like you're faking that you speak the language, but it's a great starting point that already gets you far. Also learn basic sentence patterns ("I do this", "He does that", "She does this too") to make up some basic sentences and conversations.
3. Do simple reading with a dictionary (translate each word you don't know). Listen to preferably natively spoken language recorded with video and subtitles (not in your language but in the language you're learning), translate everything you can. At this stage, grammar should be mostly ignored (or assumed). I would argue that listening is even more important than reading. Add all the new things you learn to something like Quizlet and practice. It's better not to learn the words separately but to construct or write down whole sentences with them for the context. You can also try removing translation to your language and only using flash cards with pictures. It's extremely helpful to construct some basic dialogues in your target language in your head or on paper daily and read through the old ones. These can be simple, but try to incorporate new words as you learn them. Iterate this process of gaining vocabulary through listening and reading and then making up sentences with it. As you progress, you should shift to the next stage gradually, the line between these two is not really clear. I would say, this stage is still about building the foundation of your skill, while the next one is already about learning to speak it more fluently.
4. Now read what is actually interesting to you. Continue to listen to/watch content. The topics you pick should now just be something of your interest, because you're going to get bored otherwise. Look up unknown grammatical features that you encounter and try to recreate sentences with them. Skip a grammar rule if it's too hard, but just be aware of it. At this point you should also be able to use the language actively as opposed to passively, which means you've finished building your basis and are now fully on this stage. One of the most important things in learning a language is to use it often and there's nothing better than speaking to yourself, thinking, and writing your notes/diary in that language. Also write essays or articles and try to use as much new and cool sentence types/words as you can. If you have native speakers available, you should definitely maximise interactions with them. This step is like the last one, but more advanced: you gain more vocabulary to the topics of your particular interest, as opposed to some general useful vocabulary and you use it by writing something better than simple dialogues (your notes, diaries, essays, etc).
5. Minimise looking words up during content consumption, just guess words, look them up later. Start asking yourself some questions and provide answers off top of your head in a limited amount of time (can be written or spoken) to develop speaking skills. If you wanted to say something but couldn't, say it in another language and memorise the translation, so that you could say something like that next time. As I've mentioned, this last stage is basically about the never-ending process of getting better at your target language, so there should be no time limit here as opposed to the previous ones.

The basic idea is that you use the language (a lot, in any way possible, including talking to yourself) and learn it at the same time (after a short period of just familiarising with the language). At first, you are only able to use the language passively, but then you start being more and more active. You're not "protected" from any tough grammar feature or word collocations. The problem with most language-learning techniques is that they try to separate you from actual language in order to make it simple. You should not be scared, however, to just start reading a text written for native speakers or listening to a podcast. You should face the unknown and be extremely excited about it. Don't tell yourself "I don't know that yet", the whole point is to learn it!