If you don't understand Kanji, one way is to learn by ear and practice new words and phrases until you "own" them (just like you learn a song by ear), so that you will be super comfortable using what you learned next time and be able to carry on a conversation little by little. Maybe you start with short phrases or a word or two,just enough to covey your minimum messages, but if you keep practicing, you can accumulate your "templates" in your Japanese memory bank, from which you can withdraw anytime you want in a conversation. In order to achieve this, you need a strong motivation to convey your messages in Japanese, and a quality Japanese conversation partner (paid or free) who's patient and encouraging, being helpful in improving your Japanese.

"Having a real conversation with native speakers" is the best way to start! When I first started to learn English, I went to Australia(without knowledge of English except Alphabet,and greeting words),and stayed at a Backpaker's hostel. I found some people in the kitchen, table areas or reception areas to look for someone to talk to :) Of course I made heaps of mistakes in the conversation in English, but I really enjoyed seeing myself improving day by day. At the same time, I was able to make lots of international friends!! You should find a langauge exchage partner who can communicate with you by skype or MSN. If you wish so, I will be glad to be your exchange language partner too,so you can contact me by message box ;-) Don't worry about Kanji much at this point, if you can start reading hiragana and katakana, it will be fine for the beginners. Give yourself some confidence with speaking to "real people" is my advice. "Practice makes better", right? GANBARE!

The best way is making friends Japanese and talking with them. But, it is very difficult to understand Kanji characters. Even native Japanese use wrong Kanji characters. (sorry my poor English :-<)