Overview

I figured that I should throw out that there's a lot of ways to learn a language, and watching my videos is by no means the only way.  The method you select is going to depend on your personality and goals of learning.  Remember, regardless of you primarily plan to learn, dabbing into the other methods are very important, too.

There’s many different methods out there for learning a language, but they all basically can be simplified down to four categories: academic, input, output, or a mix of those three. That’s it, and while everyone can claim that their method is different or better than all the others out there, you can always guarantee it will fall predominately into one of the first three categories, even if it’s a mix.

For example, TextFugu, AJATT, and Speak from Day 1 all come from three different camps: TextFugu is predominately academic, AJATT is almost exclusively input, and Speak from Day 1 is heavily output. So, let’s take a look at how these methods break down.

Academic

This method involves enrolling in a school and taking classes to learn a language, hiring a private tutor, or self-teaching using text books, these videos, or anything else that provides a structure. The textbook or instructor are going to be at the center of your journey towards whatever your goal is (it’s not always fluency, you know), and grammar and vocabulary are king. It’s very structured and takes everything step-by-step.
 
Input

This is a much less structured method, involving reading, watching, and listening to a lot of your target language. If you take this to the extreme, as Khatzumoto does, you should try and do something – anything – in Japanese or whatever your target language is as often as you can. The principle is to have fun (not that I try and make my videos as dry as possible), as that’s the biggest motivator you can have. The general idea is that you don’t have to study grammar that hard, but rather just a bit and reference it a lot as you build your vocabulary and general knowledge with an overdose of books, movies, games, etc. As you go, you grow accustomed to how the language works in real life rather than a sanitized text book, which doesn’t provide real life speech, and your own speech will sound much more natural.  Through the use of flashcards and anime, I try to add a bit of the input side of things as well.

Output

This method advocates speaking from day one, and is great if your primary goal is to be able to visit a foreign country and still be able to speak with the natives. It’s largely advocated by the site Fluent in 3 Months, and it’s focus in on speaking and understanding. The idea is to learn often used words, phrases, etc. and by speaking with natives you get feedback and a chance to perfect your language skills. Perfection isn’t stressed, and while it typically has some structure, it also allows for a lot of freedom.

There is nothing I can do with this site to give you output practice, which is absolutely necessary at some stage, even if you don't want to focus on from day 1.  It is entirely up to the learner to fulfill this aspect of their language acquisition.