[Hatredcopter]

1. Took a couple years of Japanese in high school, didn't get very far because the teaching was very slow.

2. Took two years of Japanese at university in the US.

3. Took one year of intensive Japanese at a university in Japan, also learned just from the immersion of being in Japan for that year.

4. Studied kanji and vocabulary independently for 7 months to reach a JLPT Level 2 level (took and passed the test), then I graduated. Probably could have reached that level of Japanese faster, although I took a bit of a break from my studies after I got back from Japan.

5. Currently living/working in Japan, hoping to master the joyo kanji in less than a year from now.

As for what I used aside from classes and immersion, I used textbooks until I had grammar down and then I simply used flash cards for kanji and vocabulary. I watched Japanese TV for listening practice, and spoke with Japanese people I knew in person and via skype for speaking practice.