As topic, I'm trying to create a study plan to self teach japanese.

For kanji and hiragana I have the RtK and Remembering the Kana series by Heisig, along with Anki SRS (spaced repetition learning).

I'd love to know what methods you guys use/have used at university or to learn by yourself, also If you have any recommendations for learning grammer/speech, as its a really big gap in my plan, and i'm struggling to fill it at present.

Any other recommendations would be awesome

live in japan

living in a foreign country for an extended period of time is a great way to learn their new language faster, but not plausible for most people.

- http://www.japanese-flashcards.com/ is a good resource, not only for japanese but for other languages too
- there's a lot of apps you get can for your phone
- getting a skype tutor will help tremendously with your speaking ability. there's a ton of skype tutors from all kinds of countries with teaching degrees and experience with teaching their native language to foreign students. not very expensive usually either

gl

Lang-8 is a great place to practice writing Japanese, as people who read your entries will correct your grammar for you. You can also ask questions, and they'll usually respond, and a lot of people on the site are willing to have skype chat to help you practice Japanese, provided you also help them with English.

See if there's a Japanese-English Toastmasters club near you and join that too. That helps a lot, especially with pronounciation, which is one of the more difficult aspects of Japanese, although it doesn't seem like it should be.

You could also try 2ch to practice reading Japanese for whatever hobby or subject matter interests you, but that's kinda like learning English from 4chan.

What's the reason you want to learn Japanese?

When writing kanji and so forth, don't just use flashcards, but actually use the kanji in a sentence.

I learned using JSL, which stresses actual usage rather than rote memorization, which I recommend.

hentai

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/

I always enjoyed reading this. It's great for motivation even though I'm not even learning Japanese (I'm doing Thai)