On arriving here, I was stuck in the highest level of Japanese classes the university offered due to my previous experience with the language. My classmates were all from places across Asia like China, Taiwan and South Korea, and all possessed scary levels of fluency. Most of them had lived here for at least two years. Some had been here for as long as five. I felt totally out of place, as while my reading was pretty good, my speaking was atrocious.
About ten weeks on, and not only has my speaking improved exponentially, but I got my first midterm back today - 49/50!

Sometimes it's not bad to push your limits a little. ^^