Howdy, Xentron! Welcome to the forum
Alright, starting from the bottom up.
Get Genki. Genki I and Genki II. These are the best textbooks you'll ever read. It helps to get the workbooks, too. I went to the university that wrote them (Kansai Gaidai), and I gotta tell you they're amazing. They're paperback, too, so they won't break your bank.
Rosetta Stone is okay but maybe hold off on buying any more. My one buddy works for them developing the software, and they JUST finished making a brand new Rosetta Stone that he says will be revolutionary. Look forward to it!
I wouldn't recommend driving 100 miles just to see a tutor. You can get the same thing via Skype! It's not worth it for gas, time, and stress of sitting still for that long. Not to mention wear and tear on your car. Get Skype, and look up some people in Japan who are looking for language exchange; there are a TON of them. This way you also get real-world Japanese experience!
Immersion is good. Listen to the music and try to pick out words. Watch movies without subtitles if you can. Watch TV variety shows. Anime is pretty bad for it because the speech is very unrealistic and you won't ever hear it in person (unless it's a "realistic" anime, but those are usually animated movies). Do whatever you can!
Some advice that really helped me get fluent:
- Keep a notebook. Go buy a little Moleskinne and every time you hear or see a new Japanese word, WRITE IT DOWN! The Kanji, too. If you're serious about learning Japanese, you're gonna learn that word eventually anyway, right?
- Think in Japanese. As much as you can. Heck, even fill in words you know in the middle of your English thoughts. For instance, "Boy I sure would like to 食べる some すし！” Sure, the grammar is wonky, but you're slowly replacing languages inside your head, which is where the most exposure you'll get comes from.
- When you get a chance to speak to a Japanese person, speak ONLY Japanese. Don't fall to the temptation to use English! I know it's hard, but がんばれ！ (Do your best!)
Of course "self study" is only going to get you so far. You have to go there, there's simply no substitute. Once you land in Japan, you'll realize how bad your Japanese is and, if you care enough to, you'll adjust and soak it all in like a sponge. Improving my Japanese was my #1 priority the first time I went and I zoomed far ahead of my peers who didn't care as much. You just need to work at it.
Now here's the hardest part, my friend: You need to accept that you will never reach native-speaker level. No matter how hard you study or how long you live in Japan, it will never be your first language, and you will never understand every nuance of every word. Also you might never get rid of your accent (but screw that I'm still trying! hehe). This are harsh realities and I was depressed for like three days when one of my American professors at Gaidai told me this. But it's true. You just need to get as close as you can.
Here's another thing: the Japanese are very... well, I wouldn't say "Polite", but they're reserved. They'll never call you out on anything. So when you go, or when you speak to a Japanese person, you might only say "こんにちわ” before they start going nuts and singing your praises about how great you are at Japanese. I still don't really get it, and I won't get into my ideas about why they do that here, but the important part is that they will NEVER correct you. Ever. Even if you ask them to, they might do it for 5 minutes before they get unfomfortable. So you need to stay on them, ask them these major things:
- "ぶんぽうあてた？” (Did I get the grammar on that?) (Casual)
- "わたしのはつおんはどうですか？" (How's my pronunciation?)
- "わたしのアクセントはどうですか？” (How's my accent?)
Keep on them about it. They don't care because they already speak English, but you need to catch up on your にほんご！
Do your best, don't lose heart, study hard, and always remember that you CAN become fluent! PM me if you have any questions.. I'm still a learner myself and I devote a lot of time to learning how to learn! I've got books worth of mnemonics and theory on this stuff
