[sunspeck]

By "feel" do you also mean grammar? Because I do believe that immersion is necessary for an intuitive understanding of the structure of a language. Rote grammar will get y9ou so far, but it's a different beast.

I agree that vocabulary is a more mechanical memorization task. Knowledge of linguistic antecedents (eg. Latin for the Romance family) greatly helps this along.

[joksnet]

For immersion, the best is go and live in a country that speak the language you wish to learn. Et si est le pays d'origine mieux. Muchos paises adoptaron los modismos a tal punto de "crear" un nuevo idioma.