[XcapeLand]

Thanks for the input everyone you all are really helpful I figure that I was just going to have to get myself more acquainted to the language. I really don't know any Japanese personally so maybe when I transfer to a four year school I will get the exposure I need. So hopefully it works out.

KyleGoetz
I stopped having to translate in my head after a year or so of doing Japanese conversation over an hour a day, three times a week, with a university club. This was, of course, in addition to the five or six hours I spent in Japanese language classes at university and the hour or so of homework I worked on every night.

So probably twelve or more hours per week of practice for a year got me there, where about 1/3 of the time was with native speakers in native situations. 1/2 was in a classroom with a native-speaking professor only teaching using Japanese (no English).

I will try to study as hard as you when I transfer to a four year then.

Nyororin

My advice is to do your best to learn Japanese without it being "translated" to begin with. Learn it from context, learn it from observance, learn it *in* Japanese... Just don't learn it as "blah blah" means "blah blah blah" in English. Instead of the word being linked in your mind to the actual meaning, it will be linked to what you have been told is it's meaning - another word, instead of the actual thing.
A vaguely similar example would be two words with pretty much the same meaning. When you hear "dog", the object that it should be linked to is, well, a dog. When you hear "canine", the link should also be going to the same thing - a dog. Not to "dog" which then goes to the real thing.

This makes senses I will keep this in mind when I am studying. I am trying to teach my self the language at the moment and I don't want to get into the habit of translating Japanese in to English when I hear it.

After spending the day at a bilingual friend's house, changing languages depending on whether others in our vicinity understood or not (my husband is monolingual as is my friend's mother-in-law, when they were talking with us we spoke in Japanese. When it was just the two of us we spoke in English.), I can remember all that we talked about but I can't recall which parts were in which language.

Interesting how long did it take you to get to that level of fluency? When did it start feeling natural for you to speak the language?

Also I don't mind your rambling at all it rather interesting