How can I accumulate a rich vocabulary? --> read novels/stories/books in English, then if you do not understand some words, look up their meanings in a dictionary.

Hi. You can increase your English vocab free online.This website has themed units with pictures and sound, English games and free English lessons for beginners at www.learnenglish.de/ In order to remember your English vocabulary you can follow 2 methods. First is the repetition-based method, where you learn English words by writing them several times or saying them repeatedly until you remember them all. If you patiently follow the process, you will see your vocabulary extended very well. Secondly, you also need have to have a notebook with your own note-taking rules. Each time you log onto Italki, note down any new words in the Questions and Answers section. The only problem is whether you want a rich vocabulary or not. Your plan should answer 4 questions. 1.How many words will you learn a week: 5, 10, 15 or more? 2. When will you learn them? Every other morning or anytime you feel like learning? 3. How often will you review what you have learnt: weekly, monthly or before a test ? 4. What areas of English will you focus on? Sports, music, games or sciences? The answers may vary a great deal from one person to another depending on memory, schedules and interest. You can gain a big vocabulary and improve your English by simply by determining what field of words to learn, making a plan of learning, choosing a learning method and regularly practising your plan and method. Daily vocab learning is better than weekly or monthly. Remember your vocab by drawing a small a picture next to it.For example, for the phrase "make up" draw a small coloured picture of a woman's face with lipstick, eye shadow and mascara. "Make up" also means to make friends again after an argument so you need to draw 2 people shaking hands underneath your first picture. Good luck.

This is definitely a common and huge problem, especially to those who aren't in an immersion type environment. You have to have some sort of strategy to review words. The are various strategies, including word groups, mnemonics, talking to oneself, etc, but I believe the most effective is "spaced repetition system （应该是分开的重复卡片系统）" flash cards combined with sentences to show context. The program I use is ANKI, a free flash card system. Spaced repetition is the scientifically proved most efficient way to review information, and you can rapidly memorize vast amounts with this tool. A lot of users learn around 20 words a day with it, and more. However, doing this will only increase your passive vocab （无激发的词汇吧？）. to activate （激发）it there are various other strategies you must use. I hope that helps.

The simple answer is to find ways to use your new vocab. words in daily life.