While in general I do agree with you (it's how I learned Italian, Hebrew, and Thai) being on the ground for a year is cost-prohibitive for me right now, and unr

While in general I do agree with you (it's how I learned Italian, Hebrew, and Thai) being on the ground for a year is cost-prohibitive for me right now, and unreasonable for kids under 16. What I've been building, with the help of a few language teachers, is our best guess at a really good way of learning new languages from the comfort of your home. It's not ever going to be perfect, but it is pretty good (at least so far in testing within our small group), and very cost-effective. If you're interested in funding it, I'm happy to go live in Japan for a year :)