Well, I'm learning Japanese right now in college and it's pretty easy. I had spanish in high school too and I passed with a C. My guess is learn a language that interests you. You know, a language where you find interest in their culture so you want to learn the language. That's what I'm doing now and I find it easier for me to learn Japanese than Spanish.
Shes not asking what language she should learn, she's asking for help with Spanish because that's what she's taking.
[And btw (this is for all japanese learning people who are in the US), unless you're actually planning on pursuing a future in Japan, learning Japanese is pretty useless. If you want to learn a language, Spanish is the way to go. Its almost a second official language here in the US so you'd have more opportunities for jobs and such since many businesses would rather hire a bilingual person who speaks Spanish rather than Japanese. Just a word of advice.]
Now, back on topic. If you can, try asking your teacher if she can provide some tapes you can listen to on your free time.1) When I learned English, I spent hours listening to tapes on my headphones in my room and in 4 months time, I learned English perfectly. Its all about repetition (at least for me it was). Like someone said too, surround yourself with it. When you have time, instead of watching American Idol (im not suggesting you watch it, just an example), flick through the channel to Telemundo or something and watch, or rather, listen to it. 2) As I was learning English, I didnt watch a single Spanish channel, all I did was watch shows in English. If you have Telemundo, there are some shows that have English Closed Captioning; so while you're listening to it, you can read the subtitles and pick up words and understand them better how they're used (hmmmm, that sounds familiar. oh thats right, just like how you pick up words from watching anime). And 3) Hang around people who speak Spanish more and try to speak it with them, hell even ask them for advice as well.
Remember, its all about practice. Learning a language is not about smarts or anything, it's about dedication and effort. Dont think that a class a day will make a Spanish-person out of you, or just doing the homework. You need to pursue it on your OWN free time; dont think, "oh, i finished the homework, i guess that's enough". No, if you think you're still clueless, instead of turning on the TV or something, keep that book open and study/practice until you actually feel like you learned something that day. Like I said, I spent hours locked inside my room studying English, and unless you think otherwise, I'd say Im fucking good at it.
