Paul Blay wrote:

> "Elbow" <tokyoelbow@totalise.co.uk> wrote ...
> 
>> Any good pointers would be really appreciated.
> 
> 
> Try sci.lang.japan.  Not that you have any choice about it now.
> 
>> some of you may remember my old 2001 thread  Bi-Lingual Kids
>> http://tinyurl.com/7bjxz
>>
>> I've been living in Japan since 1995 and my Nihongo is still really
>> embarrassingly piss-poor. 

Eleven years? Pathetic, really. Get off your ass and do some self-study.

I know of people who are entirely self taught and at JLPT1.

Taking classes is a waste of time, money and effort. The people who do 
really well at Japanese are the people who sit down with their books and 
study hard - not people who pay to go classes for a chit-chat session.