My Journey to a Better Language Learning System
I have spent the last 10 months learning italian, spending a total of 7 weeks in the country, 150 hours studying, and 85 hours speaking on iTalki.<p>I have been using the method&#x27;s described in Fluent Forever[1] and they have been working extremely well for me. I have a speaking partner that I speak with 3-5 times a week for 1 hour each time (If you want to learn italian email me, he is awesome), and I keep track of literally everything I cant say, and after the lesson make cards, insert them into Anki, repeat.<p>I can understand 80% of our conversations perfectly, and we talk for the full hour, rarely breaking into english. Am I speaking perfect italian - no, but I have absolutely no problems communicating. I was recently in Sicily with my family and hanging out with a family that spoke no English and was translating for 8 people in both directions with no problems.<p>This is the first new language I have learned but it seems the key to me is described in the book<p>1) start with pronunciation and spelling (Gabe created pronunciation trainers for most languages) 
2) Learn some basic verbs (I need, I want, may I, to go, to take, etc)
3) Building up a large list of nouns
4) Start using iTalki with a partner very soon into your journey and keep track of what you dont know.<p>The state departments says it takes around 400 hours to learn the latin based languages, I believe that seems fairly accurate.