Excellent writeup. One little thing i will add is that i learned a few languages to varying degrees by reading magazines and websites on a specialized but not

Excellent writeup. One little thing i will add is that i learned a few languages to varying degrees by reading magazines and websites on a specialized but not terribly complicated subject that i knew well, bike racing. That way I had a 40% comprehension before starting, encountered a lot of familiar words in italics and my brain was better able to interpolate meaning. also that some things are harder or easier than you think. After learning French, Latin, Spanish and some Italian, in that order, i had a lot of difficulty with Brazilian Portuguese, but i once bought a "Learn Dutch in your Car" CD set and starting listening, the usual banal dialog about going shopping for groceries, when i realized i could understand a language that i had never studied or heard before, as native English speaker who understood German well