I've been learning Japanese for about five years, but was a fluent speaker after about two. I have only a little bit of advice.
- Try all the methods, see what sticks. Your learning style, basic knowledge/ability up until now will be different to everyone else's. I personally hate rosetta stone and software like it but I've seen other people have a lot of success with it. I like classes and exams because they force me to stick to a syllabus but other people hate classroom learning. It's extremely personal and no one can really prescribe a best method.
- There will be times where you lack material (grammar, vocab, etc) and times where you lack practice. For me there's always been a cycle of learning lots of material and going out to actually use it in real life. These cycles can last a few hours, days or even years. If you ever feel like you've got a lot of knowledge, but not much confidence, its time to make native speaker friends and _practice_. If on the other hand you feel like you've hit a plateau, most likely its time to hit the books.
- Learning on and off is fine, don't sweat that at all. Its perfectly alright to stop studying for a few months here and there, especially if you're spending regular time with native speakers. I barely touched a textbook or learning resource in the entire two years I lived in Japan.
- Try all the methods, see what sticks. Your learning style, basic knowledge/ability up until now will be different to everyone else's. I personally hate rosetta stone and software like it but I've seen other people have a lot of success with it. I like classes and exams because they force me to stick to a syllabus but other people hate classroom learning. It's extremely personal and no one can really prescribe a best method.
- There will be times where you lack material (grammar, vocab, etc) and times where you lack practice. For me there's always been a cycle of learning lots of material and going out to actually use it in real life. These cycles can last a few hours, days or even years. If you ever feel like you've got a lot of knowledge, but not much confidence, its time to make native speaker friends and _practice_. If on the other hand you feel like you've hit a plateau, most likely its time to hit the books.
- Learning on and off is fine, don't sweat that at all. Its perfectly alright to stop studying for a few months here and there, especially if you're spending regular time with native speakers. I barely touched a textbook or learning resource in the entire two years I lived in Japan.