Neither “speaking from day one” nor “getting a good grammar book and dictionary” will enable a person to learn a language more quickly. These things can be part of a learning strategy. Mostly, however, we need to acquire the language through lots of exposure, lots of reading and listening.
I keep working on at least 4 hours of exposure daily. It takes a great deal of time to learn a language. My brain keeps on learning some of the tips and hints work and some don’t. The golden notebook works well but more because it is a great reference. Also using flips cards with 2-6 words per card work. What works the best is time. I have also never been great at using memory techniques. Thank you so much for sharing.