Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world chess champion, is from Norway, but he speaks English fluently. I'd love to know how he acquired it. Perhaps from reading lots of chess books in English?
What I get from him as regards language learning is his attitude. He personifies the word 'berserker'. That's how you ought to tackle languages - in BERSERKER mode.
When you are berserk, you are being crazy, unconventional, super-energetic, out-of-control, wild, insane, frenzied - that type-of-thing.
Berserk also happens to be the term used voluntarily reducing your time in a chess game by a half. (Follow this link for an example of that.)
Next, I invite you to watch Magnus 'in the flesh'. Below, Magnus plays Wesley So, one of the top 5 or 10 players in the world. We pick up the match 3 hours in, where the players have moved onto the blitz portion of their match (they have a minute each per game to complete their moves).
Magnus displays true berserker mode mentality. Blue monitor light bouncing off his glasses, he bounces up and down on his seat as he wins 11 out of the next 12 games. All that his opponent can do is shake his head.
I think that we need to tackle new languages in that way too. Relaxed, intuitive and a little - no, make that a lot - berserk.
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