What is the best way to retain vocabulary

[Amerikaner9]

I have gotten a lot of good ideas for learning new vocabulary. I read the news in German and I try to watch German news reports. But, I have a problem. I often forget all those pesky new words I look up! I try to just study them using flashcards, but that doesn't really seem to work all that well. Does anybody here have any effective ways for retaining vocabulary words they've learnt?

[Keswick]

Put them into proper sentences. Single words often don't make much sense and are difficult to remember if they lack context. So simply use them in a short sentence and you should be able to keep them in mind.

[MichaelK]

Another good idea is to create mind maps. Using them you can pad out your ideas with subideas and connect everything. Often symbols or little images help to visualize it.
I think there exists some software, too.

[Josh]

It may sound weird, since it suffers from the cliche of being practiced mostly by the female gender, but keeping a diary for the sake of memorizing could be a way to learn vocabs more effectively.

I used to do the same in korean. It's really quite an effort to memorize complicated words without any context. Even if you keep your diary while you look the words up you want to use, the fact of creating your own context makes it easier for your mind to remember what you've written.

[deadcat]

you need someone else that knows german too, that way you can practice more. or use furoms in German more often. Repitition is the best way.

[deadcat]

Try to imagine an image of the word (if the word is cat think of a cat while learning the word)