From my understanding most people didn't learn languages in the Middle Ages etc apart from the clergy learning Latin and I beleive that was a process of rote learning. What interests me more is the aristocracy during the Renaissance. There seemed to be an expectation that everyone above a certain social standing had to be at least bilingual if not a polyglot. This begs the question how did they do it ,as virtually none of the resources common today existed back then . Was their learning immersion based ,or did it have a greater focus on textbooks and tutors ,or was it something entirely different?