I've been studying Japanese ever since I was 13. Unfortunately, I was never super consistent with studying, though I've always been an avid consumer of Japanese media, especially music and anime and such. I feel like my listening comprehension is pretty okay, but my actual communication skills are on the weaker end. I wouldn't call myself a total beginner, but I'm so clumsy when expressing myself that I often feel really bummed out about my Japanese skills, and it's really discouraging and frustrating. I've wanted to try and study using something like Genki on my own, but from what I've seen, it seems textbooks don't really teach more natural ways to say things to begin with? But I digress. As of writing this, I'm just so frustrated and sad that my Japanese isn't as good as it probably should be. It's like, if I were consistent from the start, maybe my Japanese communication skills would be better. But they're not as good as I'd like them to be. :( 

Are you also feeling discouraged with learning Japanese? If you're more fluent in the language, how did you overcome these frustrated hurdles? Is immersion in the language and talking with native Japanese speakers a solid way to improve, perhaps even rendering textbooks unnecessary? How did you become more fluent and grasp the grammar stuff better? I wonder what you all think. Maybe this can help those of us in a rut to get out of the rut and improve!