How can you start learning a new language when you have hardly any time to sit down and learn rows of new words?
Get post-its, and lots of them!
Honestly, right now, I'm helping friends to transform their house into a German classroom. There are small post-its all over the place, giving the English word and the German translation (with gender since German knows three different genders).
The trick behind this is that our brain will pick up new things even if we don't actively learn them. It takes longer, and in the case of new words, our brain needs to see them repeatedly before they stick, but this method will help to learn a base vocabulary without actually studying.
I actually used this method before when I wanted to learn Italian pronouns. I couldn't for the hell of it remember which ones were direct and which indirect pronouns and constantly mixed them up, so I just wrote them all down in orderly lists and pinned them to my wardrobe doors (the outsides). Every time I looked at my wardrobe, I saw the lists and unconsciously started reading them. After some time, I finally got my pronouns straight--without the frustration of sitting down and studying!
This said, I can heartily recommend this method for everyone who has a hard time remembering something new. It doesn't need to be language-related; the post-it method would work great with math formulas too, for example. Just one piece of advice: Make sure everyone living together with you is okay with this transformation since they will encounter your post-its daily, and likely for weeks or even months.
Language ... the bridge of communication, the magic creator of worlds, the brush and paint of authors. Language is magic. It gives us power. It is something you just have to love.
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