So I my girlfriend and I are moving in together soon in Japan. I want to practice Japanese, but I also want her to improve her English. So, my question is how can we accomplish this. Speak only Japanese every other day and exclusively English the other days? I'd love to hear from someone who has tackled this problem with their Japanese spouse/ partner/ gf/ bf/ roommate.

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It is not impossible but if you love each other you will both study hard to have better communication! Best wishes!

I've never had this issue before because I've never been in the situation but an idea would be, don't speak your native language unless you have to or unless you are correcting your girlfriend, and she can do the same. I'm assuming you speak English natively and she speaks Japanese natively. So you only speak Japanese to her and she only speaks English to you. If you say something incorrect in Japanese she can either speak to you in English or Japanese(preferably the latter) and tell you the right way to say it. If she is speaking English and says something incorrect grammatically, then you can tell her the right way to say it in English, or if she doesn't understand, attempt/learn it in Japanese to tell her what was wrong with that sentence. An example would be you ask, ogenki desuka? She replies I am well. Or something along those lines.

A mere suggestion.

I think I can answer this question since I have first hand knowledge. Trying to learn a new language from your spouse or live in does not work. However having a native speaker to correct your grammar and verbal communication really helps. In the house you have to decide what language you want to communicate with as the primary. In our situation it was English and I took Japanese in college. Here in Japan we still speak English in the house with a lot more Japanese being added everyday as my language skill gets better. I do believe you need basic language course to start with and living together communication will be everything, so pick a primary language to communicate with and build from there. Also I have set aside a time in the morning and evening to study I have found learning to write kanji and hiragana are required as you learn to speak Japanese. For me I have also learned writing in kanji and hiragana has helped me retain words better.

Thanks for the reply. It's 8 months later now and My japanese has improved. We mostly use English because her English is better than my Japanese. However, if I can say something in Japanese, I do. Then she'll correct me and I'll learn from that. Often she'll speak to me in Japanese. Usually I can understand what she's saying, but if I give a confused face she'll translate. And so it goes.

I am learning the writing and reading slowly (I can read about 300 kanji, and write about 100 now). Most important to me is listening and speaking though. I don't like classes so I've just been using my textbook, and language immersion (lots of listening and trying to talk)