Help needed!

[sploogal]

I know that there are at least 2 people on my flist who have learned a foreign language beyond primary school level.  How did you absorb new vocab and grammar rules?  My lecturer seems to just expect us to know huge long lists of words the week after we get them, and rather than spending time on vocab in lectures he drills grammar  rules without giving very useful examples of using words/sentences in real context.  Is it just that I don't mesh with this style of teaching/learning, or am I missing something?  It seems to me that it would be much easier to remember and use proper grammar if we read passages of text or listened to speech rather than trying to memorise a bunch of rules.

Also, Britt you'll be impressed - I moved some of my furniture around and tidied and organised things and now my place looks awesome.  Wanna inspect before it gets messy again?