I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here's How | Gabriel Wyner, Lifehacker

While I consider myself an expert in using English, I suck at learning and remembering foreign languages. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't very attentive while studying French for two years in high school (my girlfriend was in the class, ahem). I didn't need a foreign language to get out of college. And much more recently, I can't seem to remember basic terms of human interaction in foreign countries even 20 minutes after reviewing them!

So this article, which I need to study more thoroughly, caught my attention. It doesn't make learning a foreign language sound easy, but it does provide a method that seems efficient and effective.

Wyner writes:

This is the method I've used to learn four languages (Italian, German, French and now Russian); it's the method that got me to C1 fluency in French in about 5 months, and I'm currently using it with Russian (and plan on reaching C1 equivalent fluency by September).

Here are the headings for each stage in his process:

Stage 1: Learn the correct pronunciation of the language.
Stage 2: Vocabulary and grammar acquisition, no English allowed.
Stage 3: Listening, writing and reading work.
Stage 4: Speech.