I've been learning Japanese for about 2-ish years now, and I feel like I'm getting to the point where my old effective methods that got me to where I am now could use some revising in order to learn the higher level stuff/skills better. Here I'm looking for suggestions/improvements as far as what I could be doing, especially considering I have a lengthy summer break ahead.

---Large amount of text ahead **

At this point I have completed RTK 1 (more or less) and the Genki series, as well as skimming my way through Japanese the Manga Way (slowing down when I found something new/interesting)
As far as consumable media, I watch anime and J-Dramas as I find them, although finding them without subtitles can be tricky as I don't really like to download stuff a lot (but there is tape over the screen for that if I want to). I listen to Japanese songs on my Ipod as well as Youtube playlists. In terms of listening, I definitely know that I need to improve a fair bit (as there are often times when people don't say words clearly and I mistake them or need a repeat), but overall I think that listening to the stuff that I do has helped a lot in terms of this. I find that, while I don't necessarily understand the really technical stuff I can follow the main point of the conversation with what I can understand (context definitely helps here).
In terms of reading, my school's Japanese program has a selection of graded readers, a handful of which I've read and more I will probably read when I get back in August. I have a biology textbook I bought for fun, but at this point it's only a picture book that I can recognize because of my major as I don't have the tools I need to read at that level yet.

--Now for what I've done outside RTK and schoolwork:
I'm approaching 800 words in the Core deck (It's the 2k/6k one on this site I think). I also review some of my old stuff a bit with a Tae Kim deck I downloaded (although it's teaching me a few different things I haven't seen before).
I downloaded a word frequency analyzing tool that I found on this site as well, which looks like it finds the most frequent words in the text file you feed it and makes a list of those words. I applied it to some of my favorite song lyrics and it looks like a promising way to learn some new vocab. from there (and so understand what I'm actually listening to). I'll probably go through that when I have the time and get those words onto a better list followed by Anki.
I found a list of some general linguistics type of words describing Japanese in Japanese (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Vo...eral_Terms), so I'll probably learn those at some point (or at least the most basic useful ones).
I also have the books All About Particles by Naoko Chino and the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Gramar. However, I'm not quite sure how to use these books in my studies (or if I should even be studying directy from them).

I'm trying to get into the habit of reading NHK Easy daily, as I feel like it's more or less at or right above my level (depending on the article)

When I get back to school I will be continuing my Japanese classes where we will start doing the Tobira textbook

I did sign up for Lang-8 a while ago, but haven't used it yet because I'm not really sure what to write about. I don't really write too much these days and so am at a loss for what to use as a topic.

I feel like I have the basic tools for a lot of stuff at this point, and just need to build my knowledge with a large pile of vocabulary as well as understanding grammar
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Essentially what I'm looking for are thoughts, comments, suggestions, study materials, etc. about what I could do to change/improve my studying habits

In my opinion you should try to get into reading native materials as soon as possible. The thing that's probably keeping you from that is low vocabulary and coming from that low kanji reading ability. So you should work on that. I was about the same level as you when I started reading. Done RtK, not Genki but I guess comparable grammar knowledge from Tae Kim and the Japanese grammar dictionaries. The only thing different is I had about 10k vocab in my deck.

If you've seen other threads about vocab, native vocab is estimated to be at least 30k. I think vocab is holding you back. You're not getting far with 800 words, or even double that, if we add the ones you learned in Genki. There's also no room for improvement in listening with so few words. If 90% of the words in a conversation are unknown, listening practice is not gonna make you learn any new ones, it's just all noise.

I was just prompted to write this because 800 words seemed awfully low. If you learned a lot more words outside of Anki consider this post irrelevant.

Anyway if you want to get good at reading Japanese at some point in the future, consider that for that you actually have to read a lot of real, native level Japanese. We're talking in the 10s of thousands of pages here. So strive to get started as soon as possible, if being a proficient reader is your goal.

Aside from some the aforementioned beefing of vocab, I'd suggest going through some more grammar books. The Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar are excellent, but honestly, no textbook is really comprehensive. Really, I suggest just going through one entry a day, just like you (presumably) review Anki daily. I still encounter things I "thought" I knew from time to time (mostly subtle differences, but they really help your comprehension in the long run).

I meant out of the core deck, I definitely know more than 800. If I were to estimate actual vocab. it would be the 800 core, just about all the vocab. in the Genki lessons, as well as what I've picked up just watching/reading stuff. The core number is just a lot easier to put down because I can just browse Anki for that. Out of the Graded Reader series that is available at my school, I can read the first level without much issue (maybe a word lookup/confirmation here and there, and the 2nd level isnt so problematic either (there are 4 levels I think, although I don't remember the word number range each level recommends). But I definitely agree boosting vocab. would be the most useful, it's something I really need. Any particular recommendations for cheap/free stuff to practice on (or something that is a little pricey but really worth it)?

If I were you I would spend time looking for Japanese stuff I like whether it's music, japanese tv, japanese celebrity, etc etc that way it's more fun and there's more meaning in your japanese acquirement.

for me I do not bother with news articles or news shows whatsoeve rbecause I do not care. Even though I avoid that because I have no interest I still improved in my comprehension with those types of shows because I learned Japanese from other sources...

Switch to native materials ASAP. + possibly add new words to anki that you encounter.

Any particular suggestions? Novels or manga or whatever else.
I've read some of the simpler manga that I've seen suggested on this site here and there (something that started with a よ I believe?). I would love to read a short novel or a collection of short stories, as that is one of my big goals in terms of reading. However, I don't know much about what novels will actually make sense to attempt and which are just way above where I'm at. Are there any suggestions for short but reasonable engaging books to read? (I don't mind some dictionary lookups as long as it's not every word like some stuff I've read)

mc962 Wrote:Any particular suggestions? Novels or manga or whatever else.
I've read some of the simpler manga that I've seen suggested on this site here and there (something that started with a よ I believe?).

Almost certainly よつばと because that's the go-to starter manga in a bunch of threads. How about re-reading a book you've read in English? That way prior knowledge will help you bridge the comprehension gaps.

If you have the funds to do so, I would suggest acquiring large amounts of native material (books and manga mostly, I guess) that you think look easy. If you have enough stuff, it's easy to pick up and drop things as your interests and ability changes. Having lots of things to experiment with rather than just having one or two things that you have to read because it's all you've got is really helpful.

For short stories, I recommend きまぐれロボット　(make sure you get a children's edition - I think some won't have furigana).
For novels; ふたごの魔法つかい series. I especially like 風と火の国

And even if you don't have the funds, it's very interesting what comes up when you search seemingly random strings of japanese, like, for instance "一般コミック" "一般小説"..

As far as speaking are there any tips on holding a conversation? I can understand simpler conversations just fine, and can respond as needed (although fairly clumsy) in Japanese. However, I'm more of a listener than a talker, so even in English I tend to default to the one word yes/no answers. Obviously this won't help when trying to get comfortable talking, so I was wondering if anyone has advice in this area?

As far the googling random Japanese, after clicking on that Wikipedia link a few posts above, I might try browsing some Wikipedia articles on simpler topics and see where that takes me.

I don't have much funds at the moment, although part of that is that I'm planning to possibly go to Japan in the winter, so that would obviously be a good time to stuff a suitcase full of as much Japanese books as I can carry

I'm reading a book that may help you with the conversation parts. It goes by the rather grandiose name of "how to improve your foreign language immediately". It's a small book, but has a lot of simple tips about how to take what you already know and become a more effective communicator in a foreign language. One example is to develop "islands" of conversation, which essentially are pre-written and memorized snippets that you can insert into conversations instead of the usual "yes" "no" answers.