How to memorize Mandarin ?

I'm finding it rather difficult to memorize my vocabulary ... Was wondering which methods you have used and found to work well ?
It's been more than a decade since I learned a new language and I'm very rusty ...

Hmmmm live in China? 

I use home-made flashcards.

No cheeky - for me that is the frustrating part of learning Mandarin ... I'm in South Africa and have an hour lesson once a week. Tried distance learning through an SA university before, but that really didn't work for me - I need someone to correct my pronunciation all the time.

It's a lot tougher if you don't live here...
Tough enough if you do.

Memorization just doesn't work too well for languages, IMHO. You only remember what you USE...

Do you have CDs/tapes to listen to?  They will help.  Plus if you can afford it, buy an e-dictionary that speaks and you can record your version and compare.

But there isn't an easy way, because we don't have the same linguistic cues that Latin/Greek based languages give us.

Keep going - it's worth it when you get here. 

My practise is to repeat everything said to me, often the answers are fragments of the original question +/-. Er, I guess I should say was as now I use this much less. My vocab improved the moment my listening did. There it is, it's the opposite bogey that plagues the English teacher, and that is poor Chinese listening skills and just has hard to correct.   

ok, on a serious note, writing and writing and writing hanzi also helps.

What Cheeky said. Three hours, every day, writing hanzi.

I need someone to correct my pronunciation all the time.

Writing hanzi helps with reading, but to be able to speak you need to listen and (hopefully) have someone help you with pronunciation or if that is not possible, use language labs or tapes and CDs.

What Cheeky said. Three hours, every day, writing hanzi.

Jeez. Get a JOB, willya?

Cheeky, at least, knows what she's talking about. Writing the characters is IMHO the best way to get vocabulary while keeping the homonyms under control, and get a solid general foundation to the language. The other stuff is important too, of course, but incorporating the characters will in the long run yield you a much better command of the language than will attempting it without the written form.

I always thought the best way would be a very pretty, but very strict Chinese teacher with a whip.
 

Sadly, no. Too hard to focus. Lousy retention rate.

Depends.  Maybe the whipping is a reward for good memorization.

 

Ultimately, when learning Chinese one has to have constant oral practice and constant writing practice. See, we are different from Chinese. Their whole education system is based on memorization. We are used to picking up stuff through conversation, listening and reading.
VW, Chinese unlike majority of other languages, requires a LOT of spoken practice (that if you want to improve your speaking skills). My Uni mates studied really hard for 5 years with all these Chinese teachers and exchange students in class. Yet, most of them once in China got completely lost when it came to speaking and understanding. They picked up faster than us, mortals, of course with the time. Whatever was said about tapes and movies - it is your best chance atm besides having a Chinese person talking to you.