Thanks, Alex. That's a very reasonable response. I guess the reason I was so intent on accumulating new vocabulary words INSTANTLY is that it would be nice to learn for Italian this summer and then be able to apply to my Spanish class next year! Every so often we get vocabulary lists of 30-60 words and have to associate them with their corresponding synonyms and be quizzed on 15-25 of them.
It seems like so many people have had such success with Harry Lorayne's techniques that I figured there must be an easier, more efficient way to memorize vocab words; maybe yes, but it's not the best idea to get started on it for this trip, eh?
BTW, the Pimsleur tapes do teach you the language and new vocab words and then have you use them in context -- they use a graduated recall model of repetition to deeply instill the words into the listener's mind. And it works very well for me -- as long as I listen to the tapes sequentially, I remember the vocab and can use it to carry on conversations.
-CameronJ
