I'm reading a teach yourself Japanese course ..
.. just for the fun of it, really. There are 20 chapters in the book and some audio to go along with it. I started in good pace about two years ago and made it through the first chapters with great determination. Then I gradually slowed down although the book stayed on my bedside table. Maybe this is part of the problem, since memorising vocabulary lists in a very foreign language never really seems feasible by the time that I hit the sheets at night. Another part of the problem is that I set very high standards. I don't progress to the next chapter unless I still remember the vocabulary and grammar rules from every preceding chapter.

I'm at chapter 15 now. And yes, I still intend to finish someday.

BTW, although it's a bit demanding, I enjoy the challenge of learning the vocabulary. The trick (at least the trick that works for me) is to try to make up silly mnemonic rules. E.g. "shita" means "down" because that's where your shitter is located. And "naka" means "inside" because you are naked on the inside. A "shingo" is a traffic light, since it shines and then you go. My homegrown mnemonics are sometimes a bit of a stretch and may combine vocabulary debris from English, Danish, Norwegian, German, French and Spanish. As long as it makes sense to me ..
(spinoza, Fri 25 Jun 2010, 19:35, Reply)