Some notes on learning Brazilian Portuguese, so far:

For the most part I am following Khatzumoto's advice. For the immersion environment, I try to take in as much Portuguese as I can, every day. As I write this, I am listening to the radio from Salvador, Brazil (Rádio Metrópole). When I am on the train, I either listen to podcasts or music, even if I am reading in English. And I try to get in some reading in Portuguese every day, usually the news (O Dia), or Wikipedia articles on subjects I am interested in (samba, mysticism, the Portuguese language itself). I sleep with Brazilian radio playing. When I am at work, I'll watch movies or TV (usually cartoons) that have been dubbed. Sometimes I'll accompany the movie with subtitles in Portuguese, which helps immensely. Or I will take a cartoon, like an episode of the Jetsons: I'll first watch it in English, then in Portuguese a few times, pausing here and there to sort out the phrases.

All of this helps. I agree with Khatzumoto's insistence on listening to FUNBUN (for us natives, by us natives) material. If I am aiming at being able to understand native speakers of Portuguese, I need to practice with material intended for native speakers. I have been actively studying Portuguese for about two months, and usually I can only get words, and every once in a while I'll be able to hear entire phrases. But every time I listen, I can feel myself getting better, which is enough motivation to keep going. It is a daunting task, but I am trying to learn how to be patient and to put one foot in front of the other.

Repeatedly listening to the same thing, whether it be a song or an episode of a cartoon or podcast, is also very helpful, because I can more easily piece together the sound and sense of something finite. It's a fascinating process to watch. It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. At first, all the pieces (sounds) are just spread out. But once I get one little phrase, it becomes much easier to piece together a preceding or following phrase, based on context and more familiarity with the speaker's accent. Piece by piece, the meaning of what they are saying slowly surfaces.