Wanda Kaishin

True. Imo, the op's premise is wrong. With the exception of the large population of temporary illegal aliens, a very high percentage of immigrants speak at least passable english here. 

I've been to Shanghai 3 times, one month each trip. If you are brave enough to just start talking to people in coffee shops or whatever, just do it - you will meet lots of interesting people that way, and most of them will talk to you in Chinese. I actually did this on uni campuses; I approached students who appeared to be relaxing. But I'm a little introverted, so I found a better method.

Every uni in China will have at least one official bulletin board where students are allowed to physically post stuff. I would find these bulletin boards and post a message in english asking for language exchange partners, and leave my phone/email/etc. I met dozens of friends that way. 

You can also find people online, and arrange for meetings in person. I like to use conversationexchange.com for this.

I wish I could travel in time, but I leave that to HG Wells. 

I travel extensively, and improving my languages is often one of my main goals. I rarely spend less than a month in a country, so all that immersion really helps. For example, 3 years ago I took a vacation around the world. I was in Kiev for a month where I studied Russian, Taipei for a month where I studied Mandarin, the Philippines for 3 weeks but didn't study Tagalog, Vietnam for 3 weeks but didn't study Vietnamese, and finally Thailand for 3 months where I studied Thai. I've done 4 or 5 of these big trips, and dozens of smaller ones.

As a kid I invented a few choice names for friends. As an adult, at a time of my life when I was trying to reduce my swearing, I invented "You mother loving, ice cream sucking son of a peach!" I hope that didn't hurt your eyes.

misskrystal1982 - Could you give an example? I like hearing how others use mnemonics.

Nice list. I might have to take note of these next time around.

I agree that what you said was stupid. Notice that I didn't propose breaking up an existing language. But you are suggesting the deaf should unify all sign languages. The deaf don't want this, in fact they are just as protective of their sign languages as non-deaf people are of their spoken languages. It's illegal too. Here's a quote from a deaf rights website:

Any forcible purification or unification of sign languages, conducted by governments, professionals working with Deaf people, and organizations for or of the Deaf, is a violation of the UN and UNESCO treaties, declarations and other policies, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Deaf people in every country have the sole right to make changes, if necessary, in their own local, provincial and national sign languages in response to cultural changes. The control of the development of any Sign Language must be left to any social group where the particular sign language is exercised.

I'm just curious - why do you care? Shouldn't we leave this issue up to deaf people, and try not to judge them? 

Even though we have a pretty good selection here relatively speaking, I normally buy everything through Amazon. I always try to do some research and buy the best materials, even if they're more expensive. That being said, I buy a lot fewer books than I used to. I usually get a paper text or grammar, but most of my L2 reading material is online. 

Why wouldn't a deaf/mute person want to express herself as eloquently as a person who can hear/speak? They communicate with each other too; they don't always have someone to speak for them.

Wow Anna, that's actually pretty impressive. I read a book written by a guy who uses mnemonics all the time in everyday life. I use them mostly for languages though.

Love that word. Makes me want to study German.

In that respect, why would it be different than spoken languages? Anyway, there is an international sign language, but it's not nearly as rich as local versions.

I'm curious to see how many of you use mnemonics to learn vocabulary, sentences, etc. 

I went through a phase where I relied heavily on them. Before I started studying Japanese (2005), I enjoyed a strong visual connection with vocabulary. I mean, I could often remember what the word looked like, or how it was spelled, which really helped my recollection. But learning Japanese meant starting with a completely different script, kana, because I was convinced romaji was counterproductive. So in the beginning I had a very weak visual connection to vocabulary, and I needed help.

Mnemonics are memory tricks. I could remember a few of the words without any help, but for all others I used memory tricks. There are many different kinds of memory tricks. The ones that worked best for me used a “sound alike” component. For example, the Japanese word for rock is pronounced ishi (いしin kana). Is she really going out with him is a famous rock song. This is only one example of the many possibilities. They might seem far fetched, but they work really well. They disappear from your memory when you get comfortable with the word, after they have served their purpose. This method isn’t nearly as fast as having a strong visual connection, but with practice, it’s sufficient. The more reading I did, the more comfortable I got with the script, and the stronger the visual aid became in helping me remember the word. So the more I read, the less I had to rely on mnemonics. These days I avoid them when they aren’t needed, but don’t hesitate to use them when they can be of help.

I agree with that philosophy. That's the main reason I don't go to Unilang.

I admire your discipline.

This is a good question, and I don't know the answer, but I will say that as far as I can tell French lessons are the most expensive of the languages I study. Whether or not that leads to employment opportunities is beyond me.

As Blaveloper said, it's best to use a variety of tools. Different tools serve different purposes. In the very beginning, I try to use Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. They are both audio programs, but they have very different functions in my learning program. The way I use Pimsleur gives me an excellent foundation in pronunciation, and Michel Thomas is a quick and easy introduction to grammar. Good luck with whatever you decide to use! 

It's not. If I hurt your feelings, I apologize, but I will continue to clarify OP's that are very hard to understand.

Is it all links, or do they have any original resources?

I pay for one hour of Chinese conversation every morning. I'd rather pay for 100% Chinese than do an exchange and waste 50% of my time.

I'm pretty sure that the OP is referring to IPA. It's probably a good idea to learn the IPA of a language in the beginning, especially if you already know it for other languages, but I admit I've never done this step. I usually jump right into the script, because pronunciation seems to be my strong point.

For your background, Arabic is clearly more difficult. For me too. In fact, although Russian grammar is the toughest I've tackled, I would still probably put Arabic ahead. Not because of the writing system, which I hear is fairly straight forward, but because to have a really useful level in Arabic most experts say you need to learn Classical Arabic and the dialect of the place where you most want to use it. In other words, you'll need to learn 2 languages.

Computing is a piece of cake in all my languages. There was a time when it was a little troublesome to change scripts, but those days are gone.

I think you meant to use if instead of meanwhile. You might want to look at some free basic english grammar exercises online; this kinda looks like you used google translate.

This is called an "ethnic enclave", not a language town.

I realize some people actually make "thinking in a language" a distinct step in their language learning, creating exercises and such for themselves, but I assure you this is a step that can be skipped, because it happens naturally as part of the learning process. 

To me, what's important is substance. Pretty is nice, but if the book is structured illogically, or messed up in some other way, nice pictures doesn't make it any better. Don't get me wrong, there are many good new and old texts out there, some pretty ones, some not. It's nice to have audio, of course, but text books are never my only source of audio, even in the beginning, and I rarely learn pronunciation or script from a general text anyway. There are so many better choices out there for those items. Lots of exercises are good, but they don't all have to be translation.

I don't really agree with your definition of new vs old. However I will mention a trend that I think is unfortunate. Many newer texts are letting themes drive the organization of the book, rather than grammar. This might work fine in some languages, but can leave me with a feeling of everything being detached if the grammar of a language is complicated. Learning grammar in the order that makes it easiest to remember should be what drives the organization of most texts imo.