What improved my language skills in my target language's country was the increased exposure to casual contexts.
I have been studying Japanese for over 10 years. I got N2 in 2022 and have been using Japanese for work with Japanese clients ever since.
I just finished a nearly year long assignment to Japan. Before coming to Japan, my exposure to the language was mainly from media like anime, manga, light novels, games, work like meetings and technical documents in Japanese, and a few trips to Japan. My first few days living in Japan had interesting interactions because there is a gap between spoken language and language I encounter on media, work, or JLPT books. But living and working in Japan provided a significant boost to my language skills that can't really be replicated offshore.
I believe it has a lot to do with more exposure to casual contexts. I was not just consuming media or doing work in Japanese or traveling around Japan. I was talking to workmates casually, I joined a community band and was talking to people casually before and after rehearsals, drinking, or post concert dinners, if I wanted to buy something sometimes the staff do casual talk, etc. The other thing I discovered in Japan is variety shows. They're more likely to use casual language than something like anime, drama, news, or documentaries.
This had me thinking, people spend more of their life in casual language. They talk and read in formal language as needed, then the super formal language is for even rarer cases. You spend more time talking casually with family, friends, workmates, etc, more than talking formally with someone in a higher position or in interactions that require formal language like inquiring with the bank or the municipal office. I understand why second language acquisition focuses first more on formal language and grammar and I'm not criticizing that. It's more that casual language is like a foundation for the more formal language. People normally learn to speak casually first before the formal language is taught in school. You're more likely to learn "I'm going home." first before you learn the word "repatriation."
How I'd change my studying moving forward is consume more content that uses casual language and try to chat with people I've exchanged LINE with to strengthen the casual language foundation. I would probably be bored and feel the lack of positive feedback if I focus too much on N1 grammar, formal language, or business and technical terms so I'd put them into my Anki occasionally.
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