I am not interested in a language partner right now, but I can give you some tips of how I learned my Japanese. My credentials (if they count, he) is that I can chat and talk almost fluently, and I've been studying for about a year.
This is how I did, it's two simple steps:
1) Study grammar, hiragana and super-basic vocabulary for X number of months; 2-6, I would say, depending on how hard you study
2) Throw yourself head-first into Japanese culture, IN JAPANESE. For me, that meant anime, music, chatting to lots of people on italki, and even translating some English songs into Japanese.
Anything specific you're wondering about, just ask ; )
Cheers