Some stuff that helped me (I speak decent Chinese, some German, and basic Japanese and Esperanto):

• Immersion, of course, especially if you can insinuate you can't speak English (I'm French, we don't have a reputation for being great at English - so I can just say the equivalent of "me from the France" in the target language and I'm less likely to be answered in English)

• A high tolerance for embarrassment (not having much of a peer group around probably helps, e.g. shopping alone or talking on the internet)

• Instant Messaging with young girls of the target language - a good way of getting your brain to notice how valuable stringing basic sentences together is. Video chat would probably be even better, in my days we had to stick to ICQ (you may want to follow a different strategy if, for example, you are more interested in boys than in girls)

• Anki, or other Spaced Repetition software. Enter everything you learn in it (rather than using pre-constructed decks), and review it daily.

• Reading comic strips or other light reading in the target language (Ideally: those that talk about daily things (not space dragons - I liked "Detective Conan", because of the frequent and repetitive reference to household items), and that you've already read in your language (in my case, Tintin and Dragon Ball)) (mildly useful, I found it easier to stick to than reading actual books)

• Listening to songs in the target language (I like some Disney songs - I already know the meaning in English - or other musicals) (I don't know how useful this has actually been, but it has drilled some basic vocabulary in me, and has been enjoyable. Probably not as effective as the other options above)

• If you can't get any total immersion, organize lunches with people in the same area who either speak that language or want to learn it, with learning as an explicit goal.