Getting a Better Hold

I have been taking Japanese in my high school for three years now and am on Genki Book II, but i still find my self forgetting words and even basic sentence structures.

i fear that i might fall really far behind and loose my hope of becoming fluent in this amazing language.

I also fear that next year (spring of 10') when we go to Japan for two weeks, and live with a family. i will be far behind and be alone in a land i so deeply love...


so my overall question is, what do you guys suggest that i can do on the side to really step up in Japanese and really take control of the language (ex. Rosseta Stone...etc.)

I live in NY, New York
(if anyone else knows of classes out side of school in NY)

Fall far behind who? Your classmates? When you are in Japan your Japanese should improve noticeably every day. It will be difficult at first to try to communicate in a foreign language, but you can't expect to be fluent if you haven't ever been to Japan, and no-one else will expect you to be- you just do the best you can. Learning a foreign language is an ongoing, lifelong study. Just keep at it, and expose yourself to the language as much as possible.

Find Japanese songs you like and listen to them, have a look at the lyrics and try to understand them. Look for children's books or manga and see how much you can read. Go and see Japanese movies (subtitled) as it all increases your exposure to the language.

You are still really young, so there is no reason to think that if you keep making an effort you won't be fluent one day. Yesterday I was talking to an American friend of mine- he arrived in Japan about 5 years ago, at age 34, knowing no Japanese. He has studied really hard for the last few years and he is now quite fluent- anyone can do it with enough study and practice.