>>1209581>>1209647I speak 1 foreign language well (German) and three others poorly: Dutch (which is just swamp German), Russian, Japanese. If you have the opportunity, take a basic course in the foreign language and actually try to learn the basic phrases and some very basic conversation. Think outside the box and try to get creative with the languages as trying creative ways to express thoughts for which you lack the proper words is how you learn a language; in fact, it's how babies learn their native language. Absolute first thing is learning the alphabet if it's not the same as the English one. Obviously an exception would be something like kanji where you must study it all along.
Once you've developed a foundation, the most important tool is consistent exposure. Streams are very, very helpful, especially if you're not watching them live and can play things back. Vidya streams are the best because the video game gives you a visual feedback to the sounds you're hearing much like real life exposure to speech. Someone says, "Ah, I need to get this box over here." and repeats the word "box" a few times and even if you don't know what that word is they're saying, you can see that they're dragging a box and it clicks. It also teaches you a bunch of spontaneous, unscripted and natural speech in the language. Watching anime/JP streamers you probably have already learned that different cultures often even have different words for things like "ouch", "shhhhh", "huh?", "umm" and so forth.
My German was hot garbage up until college despite having taken it for 4 years by that point because I wasn't extremely interested in it. Then I rather suddenly developed a burning interest in foreign languages and realized I was good at learning them and the first thing I started doing to improve my German was watch German Let's Play series on YouTube. Always had a dictionary tab open and would just watch for entertainment, occasionally pausing to translate certain words I heard. Eventually I realized I was understanding huge portions of what was said despite the German speaker having an accent and despite my listening comprehension being abysmal. Vidya streams really do help that much.
However, as usual, the absolute most important thing is using the language. I know it's a lot to ask of an anon, but talking to a native speaker and travel to their country will launch your language abilities into the stratosphere. I learned a ton of German from streams but only developed steady speaking skills once I studied abroad in Germany.
Try your absolute best to learn good grammar. If you hate studying grammar just throw even 15 minutes at it a day with a good grammar reference book (Hammer's German Grammar and Usage for German) after you've developed a foundation and it will slowly sink it.
Duolingo is trash.
