Improving My Japanese: Goals and Methods

I've really been struggling with Japanese; we're only a couple weeks into the class, and learning にほんご has already been by far the most challenging experience I've faced at Princeton. I could certainly use a lot of improvement in just about every aspect of speaking, reading, and writing the language, but that being said here's a couple specific areas of speech and listening in which I can improve:

• Recognizing changes in pitch and distinguishing between similar sounds.
• Even in English, I sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between sounds like ま ("ma") and な ("na") and と ("to") and ど ("do"), so it's all the more crucial for me to start distinguishing between those sounds more accurately. Pitch changes are also rather difficult for me to hear, and that could potentially become a big barrier for me if not addressed.

• Speaking and comprehending speech up to speed.
• Right now, my comprehension of Japanese speech is extremely slow, which makes it difficult for me to respond to questions in a timely manner, let alone speaking at a natural pace.

• Remembering words and phrases correctly.
• にほんご sounds very foreign to my rural-midwest-American ears, which has made it exceptionally challenging for me to wrap my mind around Japanese words and phrases; often times, I will hear a phrase, repeat it several times, and already have forgotten how to say it within a few minutes!

Of course, it doesn't do much good to have goals if I don't have any way to achieve them, so here are some ways I'll go about accomplishing what I've set out to do:

• Watch anime every day.
• I'll watch at least one episode of anime every day with English subtitles. Then, I'll re-watch the episode without subtitles so that I'm forced to really focus on comprehension and the sound of the Japanese language.

• Attend Shibata-sensee's office hours on at least a biweekly basis.
• I'll attend Shibata-sensee's office hours at least every other week (if my schedule allows me to attend office hours every week, that would be even better) to focus on improving my pronunciation of Japanese speech.

• Flashcarding.
• I'll make flashcards of every new vocabulary term or phrase we are expected to learn and then I'll practice, practice, practice! I'll review my cards for at least forty-five minutes per day, extending that time as necessary so that I can really learn the new content.