I studied Japanese in school too. Being young and having free time helped a lot, as did having a Japanese roommate who invited all his buddies over to drink in

I studied Japanese in school too. Being young and having free time helped a lot, as did having a Japanese roommate who invited all his buddies over to drink in my room until 3am every weekend. Nonetheless, I have achieved a level of fluency and especially literacy in Mandarin that puts my Japanese of that time to shame and I have no formal credential backing it up. You don't need formal classes to become fluent in a language. If you'd like to learn how some very successful language learners have done it, check out http://lingsprout.com/experts http://lingsprout.com/experts