But first, I do agree completely with your points numbered 2 (“Practice Speaking Chinese Aloud”), 4 (“Immerse Yourself”) and 5 (“Expand Your Vocabulary”). Indeed, I would go even further than your number 2 and suggest that people not only practice speaking “out loud”, but even practice “speaking to themselves” as they go about their daily activities (NOT out loud of course, or people will think they’re crazy!:)) ), describing things they do and see to themselves in Chinese.

But I must respectfully disagree with several of your other suggestions, or least disagree with what seems to be the emphasis you place on them:

1) I sincerely think it’s a very poor idea to actually “encourage” people not to focus on/”worry” about grammar. I’m not by any means saying that students should, let alone must, learn “every” grammar rule, but in my experience those who learn languages without understanding the grammar tend to be poor speakers and even worse listeners, never advancing beyond a low level of language acquisition that really amounts to know a lot of “phrases.” Faced with new vocabulary or even slightly complex language, they become very quickly confused and cannot extend their ability. Which may be fine for those who are content to learn only the most casual of conversational skills, but is not very helpful for more educated speakers who quickly become frustrated when their “foreign language” skills lags far behind their ability to communicate in their native language.

2) With respect, I think it’s a bit silly to tell people who can barely understand or speak a language to “think” in it, especially anyone with more than a very modest amount of education in their native language. “Thinking in” a language is a skill that comes only with proficiency, and of course, any “thoughts” beyond those involving the most basic physical needs require much more language proficiency than one might think at first glance.

and,

3) Your suggestion that people “stay positive” is of course well-intended, but concerns me slightly because unless people take some care to learn a thing correctly at the beginning, “staying positive” may simply encourage them to ignore their mistakes and develop bad “language habits” that can haunt their future ability and become very difficult to correct later on.