Language Acquisition in Action Reading Heather's "Ears Turned ON" post, I came  across  so much that sounded familiar. It is now almost  exactly  six months since I landed in Japan, but my language ability has improved so much! I even surprise myself sometimes! When I first landed in Japan, my head was spinning from all of the new sounds that surrounded me. Picture a computer with an input overload--I could almost feel my brain whirring through the words, and trying to pick up on familiar-sounding phrases. My responses were slow, disorganized, and often wrong. I was tired. But I was also determined. I always heard that practice is the key to success, so from day one I practiced my Japanese at every opportunity. When someone asked me a question, I stumbled my way through the answer,  racking  my brain for ways to express myself in Japanese. When I ran into a word that I didn't know, I substituted the word in English and just kept on talking. Even when someone s