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I think Krashen's "Natural Approach" is the best way to learn. It focuses on consuming comprehensible input (CI) - listening/reading in the foreign language, and making sure you understand around 80%+. The idea would be to start with very easy stories/sentences, and slowly build that up as your vocabulary grows.
Pimsleur & FSI are good resources. Also, try to watch movies/shows that you already have seen in the target language instead (e.g. Friends, The Office, Simpsons). That way, you already have the context, and it will be easier to comprehend.
You need around 100-200hrs of CI to have a basic understanding of the language (maybe you can't speak, but you can understand basic interactions in the language). At around 400-600hrs, you'll be intermediate, and after around 800-1000hrs of CI, you'll be fluent.
Agreed. The FSI method is the best I’ve found, and Pimsleur is the best implementation of it. The biggest weakness IMO was that it was about listening and speaking and had only a minor reading component. The new software versions correct for that.
From there, you should be able to have some simple conversations and watch TV shows, at least with the foreign subtitles on. As a note, I found that (as in English) the subs might not match the spoken words, but I found that in some types of media (eg telenovellas) they match pretty well.
Does pimsluer use the FSI method?