I have just recently started a Japanese course that is 1.5 hours a week. Yes, I know that's not a lot, but it's the best you can do in my city, except for private lessons (which I can't afford at this time). It's a beginners course, so we are just doing basics now - basic grammar and vocabulary like introductions, everyday situations, beginner words, hiragana, katakana...
As I would like to be rather fluent in Japanese eventually, it's a bit of a slow pace so I'd like ideas how to supplement the course and learn by myself on the side. When I have some knowledge, I know I can practice a lot by reading, listening, etc. the language (have done so with previous languages, as I speak several languages so far) but at my current level these are not possible yet - the best I can do is watching Japanese movies/anime/series with English subtitles and learn pronunciation, tone, etc. and a word every now and then, but again, this is not very productive if you want to learn a lot in a short time.
So, what would be a good way to go about it? I don't mind buying an extra workbook or something (we learn from handouts at the course) but I don't want to just repeat the same stuff we do at the lesson. Any ideas, perhaps even specific book suggestions or some other method of learning? I already have some iPhone apps to learn kana and vocabulary and have so far mastered hiragana, know some katakana and have learned a couple of new phrases every day - though they are mostly 'travel phrases' (I would like to learn more everyday phrases rather than travel ones). Thanks to everyone in advance!
