There are rare cases where these steps may need some modification, and in particular I am speaking of 2 languages: Japanese(日本語) and Chinese(中文). The issue here is that it is impossible to complete the first step. These languages have thousands of alphabets, along with too much unnecessary complexity. In such cases, only the most basic alphabet should be learned, for example the Hiragana(ひらがな) and Katakana(カタカナ) script, and the Kanji(感じ) script can be left for later. In fact, learning to write them isn’t even relevant, since natives themselves struggle and leave it to electronic systems. Only pattern recognition becomes important for these. Same is the case with their ‘pitch accent’ that often changes the meaning of a word when pronounced differently. These oddities also become a part of the souls of these languages, and must be known at least partially before moving to step 2. Another last tip to consider is that there is a high chance that irrespective of how thorough you are, you may miss something from an earlier step after moving ahead, and realise it later. This is fine, since language acquisition isn’t a linear process anyway. At that time, simply learn the rules surrounding the concept, fill in the gaps and move on. Eventually, this process will converge and you will have sufficient fluency. With that said,