To be able to pass for a native speaker of the English language from the West Coast, and maybe work with translating, interpreting and language teaching.
Background:
I'm Brazilian. I remember having reached that level where you can understand 80% of what's being said when I was a teenager, and now I'm 22.
It certainly helped me to start listening loads of audio materials when I was around fourteen; my accent is already better than most of my fellow compatriots. As my goal is to reach full bilingualism, I won't be studying any other language for a while.
Method
No-no's:
[*] No Anki. It's great for memorizing basic words and symbols in a new language, but in my case I think it's just too tiresome and ultimately counterproductive.
[*]No dictionaries. Most of the time, a combination of http://translate.google.com and the COCA is more effective.
The method:
[*]Pronunciation: I'm taking pronunciation classes with a native teacher. Basically, I read a text aloud, he points out the words where I sound like a foreigner, and then I open http://www.youpronounce.it, and practice these words over and over. I do not listen and then repeat; I plug in my headphones and sing along with the speaker ( also known as shadowing ). I also do shadowing on Librivox audiobooks ( narrated by West Coast natives ).
[*]Lang-8: I write new entries almost everyday to my Lang-8 notebook. Curiously, correcting other people's Portuguese is increasing my knowledge of my own native language, as I sometimes have to google some grammar points.
[*]Italki for teachers and tutors.
[*]Input by register:
Frozen register:
I'm not working on this yet. Maybe I'll read the Bible, Shakespeare and Chaucer.
Formal register:
Novels ( I'm reading The Beautiful and The Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald ) and encyclopedias ( not Wikipedia ).
Consultative register:
Newspaper articles. Some podcasts.
Casual register:
Podcasts and talk radio. I've downloaded an app called Podcast Addict on my Android and I search podcasts by location ( I type in "los angeles", "denver", and so on ).
Intimate register:
[*][*]Blogs: It's easy to find blogs by location.
[*][*]Vlogs: I combine the most common baby names and surnamesfor either the 1980s or the 1990s, and then I search for Youtube channels with these names. Sometimes I also access Youtube through a Los Angeles proxy, and then I search for all videos with the word "vlog" in the title that were uploaded in the last hour. Amateur vlogs with a low number of views tend to err on the side of the intimate register more than top rated or sponsored videos. Adding the words "day out" or "outdoors" sometimes yields good results.
So here's the typical study session:
20 minutes: Reading novels, blogs and newspapers. I print everything, as I don't like to read on a screen.
10 minutes: Listening to podcasts, talk radio. I write down any expression that catches my attention.
20 minutes: Reading again.
10 minutes: Shadowing : individual words on youpronounce.it.
20 minutes: Creative writing on Lang-8. I like to use the unknown words or appealing expressions that I highlighted while I was reading, or that I wrote down while I was listening. 10 minutes of writing, 10 minutes of correcting other people's Portuguese.
10 minutes: Watching vlogs.
20 minutes: Reading.
10 minutes: Shadowing: audiobook.