My secret method to learning a language: 1. Read or listen to something in your target language. 2. Work out the meaning of a word you don't know (using a dict

My secret method to learning a language: 1. Read or listen to something in your target language. 2. Work out the meaning of a word you don't know (using a dictionary, teacher, context clues etc). Do this 1000 to 10,000 times and you'll have a formidable knowledge of your target language. Of course, the first thing people do is say: "Aha, I can optimise this! I'll make a list of all the words and just learn that!". Instantly you've removed all context, grammar and likely pronunciation (if the list is written only) from the language. Making an enormous word list is kind of taking the language out of the language.