About two weeks ago I described what I believe to be the real way to learn a language. I came across a very interesting (and wonderfully geeky) post today about how to not only learn a language, but how to pick a language to learn. Tim Ferriss claims you can learn a language (but not master it) in 1 hour.

How is it possible to become conversationally fluent in one of these languages in 2-12 months? It starts with deconstructing them, choosing wisely, and abandoning all but a few of them. ... In all cases, treat language as sport. Learn the rules first, determine if it's worth the investment of time (will you, at best, become mediocre?), then focus on the training. Picking your target is often more important than your method.

I really shouldn’t claim to have even tried learning them, but I have learned a very few basics about Italian and French. I’m now really curious about which one would be easier for me to learn. So I’m going to try deconstructing them, along with several other languages, and go from there.