[ricardosong]

A.Russell, thanks for your comment.

Your experience is another proof that success comes only out of hard work and formal training. When you are proud of your Japanese, you cannot forget your university education, which is the base for your progress. You should also thank the time and efforts talking with native speakers, which is another form I call "blood, sweat and tears". Maybe you consider talking to people kind of fun, but there exist learner who don't even open their month.

I have similar story with yours. I learned 4 years Portuguese in unversity, but I still found it was not enough on many aspects. Later I had oportunity to work with portuguese natives and I made suprisingly rapid progress, even feeling that I learned more than I did in the past 4 years. However, I say to myself, if there was not A,B,C and the basic knowledge I got before, the miracle is just a dream.

Your efforts to develop other ways of learning are positive. Perhaps I'm too tradicional, but I think the main stream is formal education. People have to learn things seriouly, to attain scientific knowlege is not sweet, it is rather bitter. Otherwise, all people will be scientists and great knowlegeble person.