I am using the approach suggested in the log1 on at least one occasion. I believe the best way to learn a language is to live in a country that speaks that language. I can't live in China right now for many stupid reasons. However, I do live in a Chinese colony which you may know of as California, although the people who actually own their houses here call it 加州.
In my particular region there are many Chinese run massage parlors. Many of the women there speak English poorly, in fact poorly enough that they prefer to converse with me in Chinese, poorly though I speak it. So I pay a small fee, get an hour long conversation session + a great massage. I supplement this with an app called Du Chinese, that has graded readings and a built in flash-card system that can generate cards from characters in the readings. I have made a good deal of progress over the past year, such that I can get by days at a time using only Chinese with my 情人(lover).
- Although on re-reading, which I should do more of, I am perhaps doing it wrong [↩]