I had great luck with the "opposite" of #1. I happened to watch some English language movies subtitled in French and it was a great way to slam a lot of written vocabulary into my head very quickly in an engaging way. That and some other techniques (living with three French girls helps ;>) had me thinking and dreaming in French at the end of a month.

I had a horrible accent, but I could get through basic conversations. A year later I was fluent, with a much better Parisian accent.

After gaining fluency in an additional language, I "disengaged" English as my translation layer and have been able to think in a foreign language much more quickly. At this point when speaking, whatever language I'm using sort of scrolls past the back of my eyes, including English.