That’s pretty much the method used at the LDS Missionary Training Centers for foreign-language missions (of course, for the missionaries coming to America, their “foreign language” is English!).
The “interesting input” is largely already-familiar scriptures and doctrines, and just common everyday conversation.
And minimum 14-hour-days of immersion for 3 to 9 weeks, depending on the complexity of the new language.

This must have been a challenging experience:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/50-years-of-missionary-language-training-readers-share-how-they-learned-their-mission-language?lang=eng

I served in an every-day two-language mission. In the missionary training center, we learned the Tahitian language for six weeks and then tried to learn French for the next six weeks while trying not to forget everything we were taught in Tahitian. Learning a new language by having instructors teach it to you speaking in this other new language you just learned last week was not easy. Tahitian and French are not alike—Polynesian language vs. Romance language. Once learned, they can together create an extraordinary mélange of words! I used both languages every day of my mission, but it was several months in the field before I was comfortable with any one language, let alone both.

—Justin Ashton of Fort Worth served in the Tahiti Papeete Mission, 2000–2002, Tahitian and French speaking

I’m trying to imagine either of those languages with a Texas drawl.

Part of my French experiment this past year was to test the Comprehensible Input hypothesis, that the most efficient means of acquiring a language is via interesting input that one mostly understands.

Not by grammar lessons, not by understanding the language, not by memorizing vocabulary, not by role-playing canned dialogs, not by regular testing.

In Comprehensible Input one reads/listens to whatever one likes with whatever assistance one can muster. Let the brain sort it out. Basically.

It’s worked well enough for me. It’s still a lot of work.

A huge advantage IMO is that one is spending time with the Real Language, which is far more slippery than toy textbook examples.

AesopFan:

Sounds great to have a life partner on the journey!

Harry Potter is a classic goto for English speakers learning another language. Also, Rowling wrote the books so that each successive book would be somewhat more difficult, language-wise, than the previous.

It took me five months to scale the first Harry Potter, a sentence at a time, in French. Arguably it was over my head. But I did learn a lot of French.

Marisa:

Not that I intended.

I’m a man of enthusiasms. I try not to foist mine upon others, though deep down I don’t understand why everyone isn’t learning French and listening to French music. 🙂

Americans aren’t having enough kids. That’s bad news for the economy — and immigration may be the answer.
https://www.businessinsider.com/economy-us-birth-rate-declining-population-immigration-china-elon-musk-2024-2

The Census Bureau predicts the number of Americans to peak in 2080, meaning that some of today’s millennials and Gen Zeds might one day find themselves part of a shrinking population.

Economists say there are only two ways to stop that becoming a reality: either convince already-reluctant young Americans to have more kids, or keep immigration high.

over 15 years ago, here, i mentioned how bad this would be
like crossing the event horizon of a black hole, you would feel nothing, except would find you could not go back… kind of like going past the point of no return at niagra falls… it doesnt feel different… but once you cross that line. your going over the falls!!

The average American woman is having just 1.6 children on average, per World Bank data — well below the figure of 2.1 that demographers say is needed to keep a population stable.

One factor the world’s largest economy has in its favor is immigration. By 2040, more Americans will die than be born each year, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. However, high immigration levels are expected to keep the population growing, albeit at a slower pace.

I’m not conversational and I still can’t hear French well, but I have reached lift-off in reading.

I can now read J.D. Salinger’s excellent short stories with few problems except archaic(!) usages, secondary definitions and various idioms. Plus the translator didn’t bother to understand American baseball and, among other things, described a left fielder as playing “left wing” as in soccer.

Good enough. I’ve been pedal to the metal long enough. I’ve got a ton of my favorite English novels cued up in French. That’s what I’ll be doing for the next three months.

Stephen Krashen, my linguist guru, mentions a study about which language students continue advancing after schooling ends — those who reached the level of reading for pleasure in their target language.

I will get to conversation. But for now I want to relax and enjoy where I am and cement those gains. Read for pleasure. I’m also curious where I will be in three months with a relaxed input-based approach.

Learning a language is a big project. I clearly underestimated it. But, like most things, it does yield to persistent effort.

It’s also one of the great things I’ve done with my life. I recommend learning a language if it’s on one’s bucket list. It’s never been easier.

I’m not sure that there’s much more that needs to be said about them. They enable secret, unconstitutional searches that you’ll probably never find out about even if they’re used against you.