Some advice from someone who thought languages were impossible in school and then learnt a second language in adulthood: Input is much better than output. Rea

Some advice from someone who thought languages were impossible in school and then learnt a second language in adulthood: Input is much better than output. Reading and listening actually give you new words, new phrases, new connections and new ways of saying things. Speaking and writing only reinforces the things you already know. If you have never heard the word "spatula" once you won't be able to say it. Also, in a real conversation you only have to be able to say something one way: "Where is the station?" or "How do I get to the station?" are just as good, but you have to understand many different possible answers. When you are looking for learning materials try to only use things aimed at native speakers. Lots of resources for adults over-simplify to fit their pedagogical idea, whereas even books for very young will children give you a full range of grammatical forms and vocabulary. Never learn vocabulary as single words. Doing a flashcard that says "dog"=="hund" is just not that useful. Instead, make flashcards of sentences, fragments and phrases. This way you learn which verbs combine together with which nouns and all the unwritten rules. Don't just blast through x000 flashcards. You will get bored and quit. As you have noticed already, just dumbly repeating words takes a lot of effort to get them to stick. When you are having fun with the language (whether that is watching TV, reading books, playing games or speaking to people) words tend to stick much better. That said, you should still use spaced repetition for these words you find "in the wild". Be realistic with the amount of time you put in. If you compare yourself to a native speaker you're comparing yourself to someone who has had 24/7 practice in the language for many many years. Don't get tricked by the vague word 'fluency'. A 6 year old can hold a conversation and knows a great deal of words. He is also easily confused by simple words like "tax" and has very little spelling ability.