Sometimes as I try to speak, I find myself trying to take an English sentence in my head and convert it verbatim to Japanese. At dinner one night, I wanted to say something to the effect of:
"The immigration issue in America is different (than Japan) because as polarized as it is, every single (Non-Native American) citizen came from somewhere else a few generations ago."
Now, there are several words I don't know in Japanese, and a few words that, at the dinner table, I wasn't able to recall. It used to be frustrating, like trying to push thoughts through a funnel. But now I try and reduce it, like a fraction to a simper sentence.
"It's a little different because 200-300 years ago, we all came from another country."
少し違うんだから２００－３００年前に全ての人は他の国から来ましたね。
Not exactly eloquent, but better then silently cogitating as people stare at me, awaiting a response.
Part of this process for me is trying to keep my English simple, and that makes it easier to convert it to Japanese.
I downloaded Declan's Kanji flashcard software and am playing with it. On the good side so far, you go through a series of tests to move to the next level, so you can't get away with not memorizing the on-yomi or alternate kun-yomi. It's also pretty easy to navigate and load new kanji. On the bad side, it's like a lot of apps made by smaller companies that lack the typical windows integration that I like. I prefer to use keystrokes over mouse-clicks, especially when entering data into fields, etc. For me it's annoying to "..tab, type, tab, type...tab, type. -Shit, mouse click. Reset hands. ok...tab..." Small potatoes, ya. Also, it seems like you can only study 10 Kanji at a time, which is a pain. it also default at startup to 一、二、三 , which is good as an option, but for non-beginners, it would be good to be offered a choice. Also studying stroke order on a computer is lame. But that isn't their problem. I think is will be a good supplement.