Tae, I think that what seems as common sense to you is in fact not that obvious at all to a lot of people. I think that the horrible formal system of grammar-lovin’ language learning has, in a way, left a strong scar on the psyche of most people who want to learn a language – they subconsciously want to turn the studying into formalized out-of-context textbook classes which are so prevailent… “Everybody does it like that, so hey, I guess I’ll do it sort of like that”. I should know, I was like that too. Then I actually put some Japanese music and news in my mp3 and started watching more anime and movies without subtitles and after a few months of a lot of listening I was amazed at my sudden progress, compared to the previous 3 years of almost no progress.

I think that there should be way more emphasis on the real-life material in the target language, more than on anything else, and the immense benefits that being exposed to it gives you, even if you feel quite lost in the beginning. I know I more or less learned English by tons of exposure, and it never really felt like studying, but that’s another story altogether.

In addition, while method 1 might work for person A while studying language X, method 2 might be a better choice for person A while studying language Y. Likewise, person B might find the opposite to be more effective.

Also, nice half-hearted attempt at a Japanese-style 顔文字. =p Those things really amaze me sometimes.