@lixaxy Giving an amount of time isn't really a good indicator of level. I had been studying for about 5 years when I moved to Tokyo and realized very fast that my level was lacking because of the nuance of the vocabulary. If learning only from textbook or any form of guided format, most things are taught in a way which makes you understandable, but not using everyday language. I like to use the English word "work" for this example because Japanese have multiple words for the same English word. In textbook/guided Japanese, you'll usually see 働く for the verb form, and 仕事 for the noun form. Therefore, it is technically correct to say 仕事に行っている, but actual Japanese are more likely to say 出勤する. While either will be understood, and literally mean the same thing, guided lessons will ignore the latter.
Before the move, I was often told by Japanese that they understood what I was saying, but "you talk like a preschool kid". It took moving to Japan and seeing actual Japanese spoken to realize what they were talking about. While this is technically still vocabulary, I think the real advantage to SRS is getting used to using the actual words in context repeatedly enough to get a feel for when to use which form. Vocabulary lists for things like JLPT N1 or EJU will get you to the point of being able to explain what's going on, as in the first sentence, but completely ignore most of the nuance words. In my case, it took a rather lengthy conversation of the word 解れない (which I just had to copy/paste the kanji from an online dictionary for because my IME doesn't want to recognize it) in order to understand this point. As an aside, the internet seems to have this one backwards, so I wouldn't trust google or tanoshiijapanese if you want to add it for vocab. Both listed it as unravel/fray, and it's actually the inability to do so.
Conjugations mess up on the internet A LOT. Japanese to English learning sites are just as bad. Most of those learners are using a site called weblio for translation sentences/context, and a lot of those don't even make it to mentioning a sentence subject let alone get quantities or verb tenses correct.
Once again, I hope this can be seen as helpful advice, but I can't stress understanding context enough if you really want t be able to read or speak at a reasonable level. My own level, even after having already studied for 5 years, took off rather quickly after realizing this. I'll also apologize to anyone reading this with interest for not including hiragana or romaji readings, but was short on time when I started the post.
