Languages and learning naturally

I've had a roaming thought in my head for a week or so.  I've been giving a fair bit of though to freshening up my study of German.  My friend N has been picking up the language in the last couple months, and while it's spurred me a bit, I haven't yet taken the time to really do anything about it.

The thought, to get back on point, has been about whether it would be possible to learn a language without any outside translation help.  That is, simply to immerse myself in it, and pick it up through listening, reading, and so forth.

Of course, quick reflection says that yes, I've already done that.  English is my mother tongue, and that was learned with no concept of anything to start me off.

So, certainly it would be possible to learn how to speak and understand a new language without any intervention from translation aids.  Learning to read and write too, since those are also things I learned without guides - beyond teachers, parents and other native speakers.

Of course, a good question I need to ask myself when I am taken by these strange ideas, is "why?"  Why would I take on the challenge of a new language and not use all of the available help?  Making the process more difficult isn't a great way to keep up my motivation, I know that much from past experience.

And also, why a new language, when I already have only partial command of French and German?  I could try to grasp a partial command of Japanese too, but what good is knowing 3 languages a bit going to do me in the real world?

They're good questions.

I think that if I want to start putting effort into language, then I really should be looking to shore up the ones I only have some grasp upon, rather than starting with something new.

Either of German or French is a good starter.  French is everywhere, and readily available from stores and so forth.  German is slightly more difficult to acquire, but I already have a store of unread books to start me off, plus the internet is full of anything I could want to watch.

I guess the main thing which I need is the will to start.  Once I get going, I just need to keep going.  No large or grand plans, just keep doing things which help.