When you are learning to speak Japanese there are many ways to approach it.
The best way, however, is to immerse yourself in the language.
The most obvious way to do this is to visit Japan and join in with their way of life.
If you cannot do this there are still ways to surround yourself with the language.
This will help you learn much faster as you will constantly have your new words and phrase going through your mind.
Complete Immersion in the language The way I do this is to be completely surrounded with Japanese language books, Japanese television, labels on home items with the new words on them.
Use audio language learning cds in the car, and DVDs with Japanese subtitles.
When you go on a train journey buy a copy of a Japanese newspaper and read them with a dictionary to hand.
You might drive your family crazy with all these learning strategies but you need to think in another language and by doing this the new words and sentences will begin to stick in your brain.
You can buy children's books at eBay in any language.
I have read many novels and books on holiday.
I only look up a word if it occurs more than 3 times.
Otherwise I keep reading and try to get the gist of the story.
You can buy pop music in a Japanese and play it in the car.
There is some great stuff out there.
As well as using this immersion technique you need to do it frequently.
Doing this once a fortnight as a big binge will not help you.
I used to plan my daily diary to study, read or watch in my new language every day.
Even if it was only for 15 minutes.
I also planned 3 times a week when I would learn for an extended time period.
Using DVD Movies in Japanese I buy DVD's that have the second language as an alternative.
You should try the Lord of the Rings trilogy in Japanese.
Great fun.
When you have time in a waiting room pull out your mini dictionary and start finding out what all the objects in the room are in Japanese, German, Italian or whatever.
If you are learning with your wife or husband decide on an evening or a whole day when you will only communicate in the Japanese language.
This can be very frustrating and takes effort but you both learn vocabulary through it when you review what you were trying to say and what was understood.
You will find that you say things and you do not know where the words came from.
They have become part of your knowledge that you can use without planning out the sentences.
The whole theory of this learning method is to bombard your senses from every angle to give you the best way of learning a language quickly and well.