The Process of Learning a Language

Hey /lang/,
I plan on starting to learn Norwegian - I've been collecting some resources (instructional books, etc) and I think I'm about read to begin. I just have one question.

I've tried learning other languages before and my biggest problem seems to be my lack of knowledge about what I should be doing outside of reading instructional books. I understand that when I first start out I'll likely not be able to do much other than just working through the books but what do I do outside of that? I know I'll need to work on vocabulary and the like, but how do I know what vocabulary to learn (especially early on before I can really read enough to find new words through reading).

Any advice for this? I don't want to fall flat on my face like other times I've tried learning a language.

what I should be doing outside of reading instructional books

Well, what are you learning the language for? Can you answer that? If you're just learning for the sake of learning, one possibility is to find a pen-pal or a skype conversation partner (there are websites for these, look for them).

As another anon has said before elsewhere here, the "textbook ladder" doesn't go to infinity — you have to *use* the language (speak/write/read/listen) to truly learn it.