heh, I get what you're saying. I'm actually horrible at rote memorization but since Chinese is pictographic, each character is composed of radicals (like little

heh, I get what you're saying. I'm actually horrible at rote memorization but since Chinese is pictographic, each character is composed of radicals (like little building blocks) which can be used to construct prosaic and flowery mnemonics that assist you in remembering the meanings and also makes the entire task less tedious. For me, being able to use quantitative metrics like vocabulary is really helpful. Additionally, I like to think of vocabulary as "ingredients in my linguistic refrigerator". The more I have, the more recipes I can concoct allowing me to express myself better in conversation.