I'd like to get suggestions from the community here on the approach I should take in my Japanese studies.

My goal at this point is primarily reading comprehension of manga, but I don't want to ignore listening/speaking ability.

I am pretty much just starting out in the last few months. My daily tasks are:
1. Gain a few Kanji from RtK1 (I'm just past 400), and review here.
2. I'm picking up a few vocabulary words a day from the JLPT Level 4 list. I figure that's a good starting point for general vocabulary, and once I'm done there, I'll do Level 3. I'm following the lists at spurrymoses.com and reviewing with spaced repetition.
3. Whenever I watch an anime (usually once a day), I try to listen for words I've learned. I also can pick out a few new words that I can then go look up.

I'm comfortable with hiragana and finishing off the katakana.

My biggest concern is grammar. I've looked through several grammar sites on the web, and done some of the lessons, but so far I've had a lot of trouble sticking with any of them. Also, I have Japanese the Manga Way, but had the same problem.

The most success I've had with grammar has been working through the first few lessons at learn-japanese.info (Not sure if these are considered good or not).

My plan is to continue on with the Kanji until I've finished RtK1. At that point, with the JLPT vocabularly I'll have picked up as well, I'm hoping to be able to scan through manga and at least get an idea of what's going on. I'm assuming grammar lessons will be easier, more motivational then.

Are there other resources or tasks I should be working on? This is just a hobby for me and I don't want to get burned out, but I don't want to take forever if I don't need to. I'm particularly interested in things that would help with the plain/everyday type language I'm more likely to encounter in manga reading.

Listen to japanesepod101.com. Often the daily podcast include both plain and polite language.

"Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar" by ALC Press is my favorite grammar book.
Unlike other books, it just gives you examples sentences(which are really great and very believable) and leaves it up to you to figure out what differentiaties certain patterns from others. So instead of rotely memorizing grammar. I'd flip through the sentences and use grammar references to investigate and theorize on how the grammar fits the setting or mood.

Of course, while you're doing this, you should be watching Japanese TV shows and listening out for any of these patterns.

Another feature that I like is that it has these additional columns with grammar points I've never seen in any other books. A lot of these are patterns that you'll naturally see and hear, but literally maybe not make much sense. The kind of stuff that people just use and take for granted without thinking much.

Overall, the book says it brings you up to JLPT3 level. You can buy it at thejapanshop.net

Welcome dswift137,

dswift137 Wrote:Are there other resources or tasks I should be working on?

You might try Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide. Another site you might like is mikekchar's how to read Japanese Manga. Good luck!