How do you learn a second language?

Thankfully, I'm studying at Kapiolani Community College in Hawaii now. As for me whose English is a second language, studying in the U.S. cannot be better to learn the language. Here, professors are not only my teachers but students are also my teachers. Before coming to Hawaii I was a short-term missionary in New York, 2006. That time my English was..., I don't know, terrible because that was almost my first visit to America. (It still sucks ha ha..) I just talked to people without knowing if they were understanding or not. While I stayed there two years, I had three mantras to learn English. (or foreign languages) The first mantra was "be a stupid." If you don't wanna be a stupid in front of people, it is impossible even to speak to them. In order not to be a stupid, you should make right sentences and always pretend to understand what they say; it's a great pressure and burden. If people despised me, I was despised; my hurt pride was not a big deal because that procedure improved my English. I just approached, taked to and listen to them. Even Being ridiculous before kids didn't matter at all. I was 25 but my English was under 5. (they enjoyed Shrek but I couldn't eve understand what the hell the green ogre and noisy donkey were talking about) The second was "just copy them." No matter how I try to write perfectly without any word, grammar and structure errors, I can never be better that the New York Times journalists. No matter how I tried to speak well, I couldn't be better that native speakers. So I just followed and spoke what they said. (not content but pronouciation, gesture, accent and so on) Lastly, "Be bold in speaking but humble in listening." One day I talked with a woman about Jesus Christ. But I couldn't understand what she said because she spoke so fast. And suddenly, she started crying. I didnt know why and still don't know. And I said something to her without knowing what she said. Suddenly she stopped crying and left. That time I realized listening was very important. Those mantras still work in Hawaii, 2009, and I'm learning too much. Anyway, travelling is fun. :PPP