The first and most important step in learning a language is really CHOOSING THE LANGUAGE that you want to learn. Why is this the most important? This is because if the language you are learning is not interesting to you or if there is no emotional connection then there is no motivation for one to continue learning it. I’m my experience in learning Portuguese, Russian, and most recently French I have various reasons as to why I decided to learn them and these reasons are solid enough that I kept going in these languages.
The second step is FINDING THE RIGHT MATERIALS. The right material can be anything that interests you. I personally like to read things that I find interesting no matter what the level is. I think it would take a while longer before I can start speaking to people but my vocabulary base got bigger faster going this route. I would explain it further in three separate blogs about each step. So scour the interwebs and get materials whether it be books, articles, or films that interest you in your target language.
The final step and what would really get me to whatever level of fluency I would like to be at is SPENDING TIME WITH THE LANGUAGE. This is why step one is very important because if I chose a language that I was not at all passionate about, then how would I spend hours upon hours immersing myself in the language as one should só they would be able to reach their desired fluency levels? Needless to say, one gains more knowledge of a language if they continuously spend time with the language.
I know that it sounds so simple but the execution of these steps in sequence really helped me with getting to B1 in Portuguese, A2 in Russian, and motivated me to learn French as well.
Check out my video where I discuss these steps as well. https://youtu.be/2acEHL4pJO4