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)