I'm really kind of getting optimistic about my German progress. I feel like when I listen to podcasts I barely miss any words. Although I can't put a percent number on that... Hopefully tens if not hundreds of hours of listened material (not all in the form of podcasts), plus flashcards are paying off...

I mean, yeah, that's nice, but I'll never be truly fluent in it if I'm not using it. Which for me means "in writing". I really don't care about speaking.

For now it doesn't depress me too much, because I'm studying a thick grammar book with eventually hundreds of exercises. So that'll be practice, if I stick with it. But sooner or later I'll have to face this struggle again...