I am a native American English speaker as well, and I think all of these bullet points are important, not only for learning English but for learning any language. I am still trying to break myself out of the final bullet point though, "translation." I need to stop doing this with Japanese and other languages. Hehehe So hard not to think in English first and then translate your thoughts. Ugh! I wonder if there are any tips out there for making this easier to get over. Hmmm. Anyhow, thanks for posting this article. :)

Hey Shawn!

 There are absolutely ways to beat this translating! It's best to try and put yourself in more situations where time is an issue (so there's no time to translate!) Check out this: http://bit.ly/appstolearn

These are apps for English practice, but I am sure you can find some in Japanese (or other languages, too!)...and the key point here is that they force you to think quickly in the target language!

That's a way to start :)

I couldn’t agree more with the last item on the list!
When I was beginning to learn English as a young adult, I’d translate almost every English word into my own native language. Like Shawn and many other fellow language learners, I needed a reference point and I found translation in some way physiologically comforting. I kept my old English-Chinese Dictionary with me until one day my ESL teacher told me it was time for me to move on to using learners’ dictionaries (dictionaries with explanations written from a limited set of English vocabulary). I was expected to bring to the class a new dictionary the next day and I wasn’t so thrilled about the idea then. Because the word definitions in an English-English dictionary often contained words I hadn’t already learned, it actually took me much more effort and longer time to figure out the meaning of a given word. From the get-go I felt somewhat like a baby without a pacifier or a non-swimmer without a swim ring, but as the time went by, I felt less need to chain myself to the translation and I felt free. Now whenever I look back, I am always thankful for the teacher who first got me used to learning without translation.

Great!