I can see reading such media to improve fluency to be sure, but I can't see how a sufficient amount of listening to foreign gibberish somehow makes it not-gibberish.
I tried this for learning Japanese while I was an anime fan in high school, and after taking classes in college I could understand every 10th word or so. I was a C student in those classes, so it's possible I just suck at Japanese. Is German easier to do this with?
To be fair this method doesn't work for everyone. Just like learning a programming language, some people find it easier to follow a course while others just start coding for a small project.
You do need to have at least the basics of the language and grammar. But no more than that. I remember when I learned English 7 years ago, I started by watching the TV show "24". In the first season I couldn't understand anything Jack Bauer was saying. I remember saying to myself: "what the hell does he mean by saying "copy that". I only understood what the show was about. Then in the second season I started subconsciously memorizing sentences and understanding their meaning. Just like a baby would learn a language without using a dictionary. Similarly I started not only understanding English but also talking and writing in it.
I used this technique for French, German and English. Not sure how complicated Japanese is though.
Edit: Just to add, that with this method you need to watch a lot and I mean a lot of TV shows/Movies/Radio/Youtube to get the full benefit.
The method you've outlined here sounds a lot more intuitive and natural, and I definitely want to give a go. I'm having similar bootstrapping questions to 'twoquestions' though; you've outlined how to reach critical mass, but how do you actually begin spinning the reactor up?
In particular, "I started by watching ... 24" sounds like a workable start, but if I did something similar with a foreign language right now, as someone interested in studying other languages but who currently knows approximately less than zero, I would only get frustrated because I wouldn't understand any of what I was hearing.
So, how did you get from 0 to 24?
So how to get from 0 to 24?. I'm really no scientist, but I think of it as the same way a baby would learn a language. you get yourself in an environment where you try to submerge yourself into the language. The "mum" here should be something you really love, for example a TV show or a movie or a radio show. The other ingredient would be to get the basics of the new language first in term of grammar and words. I would say a few hundred words that are important would suffice at the beginning. The trick is not to learn word by word, but rather sentences (I think of them as the algorithm of each language). Subtitles for me at least seem to hinder the brain of connecting speech, facial expressions, feelings, images etc and blending everything in a perfect place for the brain to remember. An example: In German "Gift" means poison in English. However, As a native English speaker your brain is wired to think of it as something positive, because all of the memories you had when you received a gift. So instead of translating it, remember it in the original language with original memories/images/sentences.
Try also to read a lot of pop culture magazines. This is really important because it helps you understand slang, inside jokes..etc. An example: Would you be able to understand a joke about Bill Cosby/ Justin Bieber if you didn't read those pop culture magazine?
Finally, your speaking need practicing by talking to native speaker and going to meetups/get tog ether's to practice.
Once you get the above, just have a little faith that it will click. Keep watching/listening and you will at the end understand what the "mum" is saying :).
Edit: This method is based on Images and Emotions which scientifically have a bigger impact on us than just words. Can't find a link to an actual study though.
Hope this helps.
Reading subtitles in a language you know well, and trying to associate that with foreign sounds that you're hearing in constant time, is... theoretically a fun-sounding idea, but IMO practically requires the skillset that only comes with being an experienced realtime translator; in other words, it requires the realtime analysis capability to already exist. It cannot bootstrap it, I don't think.
I've tried to do this once, and immediately wrote it off as something that would be frustrating to seriously attempt for the reason I have mentioned. I might be utterly wrong (I have learning difficulties as a side-effect of other issues), so YMMV, grain of salt, etc etc. But I think that, at the very least, not having subtitles makes the brain work that much harder to figure out what it's hearing, AND it removes the noise of "hey! look! instantly parseable text right there on the screen!" which the brain must work incredibly hard to ignore because it associates with neural paths that are significantly stronger than the fledgling routes being developed to learn the new language.
