Who's around you listening?  If co-workers, you must show respect, even at a party outside.

Sumimasen has wider uses too, some surprising ones like thank you. There are even higher formal ones, like shitsurei and moshiwake. Gomen useful for when physically causing trouble, like bumping into somebody. 

Beginners -- books can't do it all. Different beginners books cover different combinations of grammar even. You also need a lot of listening. Don't forget this is the age of internet multimedia (hint hint).

There are plenty of opportunities to speak to real live Japanese here in Malaysia too. Many want to exchange practice English and local languages.

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hehe. i just want to learn to read, and able to listen to anime without resorting to subs. gonna take a while.

i see gomen and gomenasai. i see anime people say gomena but i can't find any reference on the internet.

looking at the text so far, kanji i see already can agak agak meaning cos i read Chinese text but i donno how to read it in japanese and I see how they use it quite differently. probably the biggest difference i spotted is 青 that means "green" in Chinese but in Japanese, that Kanji text means "blue".

sometimes single character oso different meaning.. totally.. hehe..