Learning Vocabulary

Although learning vocabulary can be quite monotonous, you can make it interesting by choosing words you want to learn and you can also make your efforts more effective by grouping words together. You can create a theme each week, such as food, clothes, politics, society, etc. This will help you to create a bank of words that you can use for certain conversation topics, and it will also help you to reinforce what you're learning, since many of the words will be similar.

Another thing to try, is to memorize words for objects around your house. Pick a room in your house and memorize the room name, and the objects in it, such as living room, TV, sofa, chair, table, etc.

You can also create a list of cognates and learn those quickly. They even have resources online, like this list of Spanish-English cognates at Latin American Links.

Learning words that are already used in English from your target language is also an easy way to pick up new words that you might not have even realized, such as these words from French: rendez-vous, fait accomli and hors d'oeuvre.

The best way to learn words is to use them, so make your efforts count by practicing with a friend. Have a conversation where you try to use the new vocabulary words you're learning. It might seem silly, at first, but that can actually work in your favor. The more exaggerated your expressions or gestures are, the more memorable the conversation will be, along with the new words in it.