In high school all our language classes were basically electives, something I was able to get out of for some reason I don’t remember anymore, but I had come from a different district where second languages didn’t start until high school so in 8th grade being shoved into a 2nd year Spanish class was a joke. Got placed in remedial Spanish and booted from the advanced classes as a result, absolutely failed learning Spanish. Hated the Spanish language as a result because I just couldn’t learn it. In like 10th grade I started teaching myself Japanese and combined it with just memorizing a bunch of vocabulary, learning the rules of the language, and a shitload of exposure to listening. Intentionally found kids shows in Japanese to watch just so I’d have more exposure to easier parts. Did pretty well and was at conversational level in 2 years. Now as an adult I don’t have the time to keep trying to learn and the time I can dedicate to exposure is a lot lower, but a single year in Japan probably tripled my proficiency from conversational in my last year of high school. Accent was comparatively milder compared to my peers too. I also feel like I don’t have to take the step of translating it in my head to understand and when I do put time in I just use Japanese tools rather than English tools.