I don't know the "right" way to learn language- I only know what seems to work for me and what seems to make perfect sense. As I feel I am making reasonably speedy progress in Japanese I decided to share some things I've learned along the way in a mildly ridiculous fashion...
For the past 6 months or so I've had this crazy idea to compare language learning to RPGs. It makes perfect sense to me - maybe all those hours spent in highschool endlessly earning XP in MMOs prepared me for serious language study. Maybe it didn't. Either way I finally got around to compiling my thoughts and putting them together in a coherent (maybe?) article. Since that wasn't crazy enough, I first wrote it in the language I'm learning (Japanese!) and then rewrote it into English. It's not a direct translation, but it should be fun for Japanese learners to read both. Maybe. Well, I'd find that fun anyway...
I originally planned to just share it with a few friends but, as it turned out so long and possibly actually interesting, decided to share it in other places too.
And so...
Japanese: languagekoala.blogspot.com/2010/09/mmorpg.html
English:
languagekoala.blogspot.com/2010/09/if-language-learning-were-mmorpg.html
I hope it's fun..! If not, oh well! I wrote it completely out of personal interest anyway. :]