I think formal study is the best way to get a solid foundation in any language, but it’s true that real proficiency doesn’t come from the classroom. I get most of my new Chinese vocabulary from talking to my friends.

I just decided to studythe vocabulary differently for every class. For reading class I read and write (every character), for listening class I listen and for speaking class I read aloud. Before I was just trying to learn the characters and wrote them many many times. But right now that seems so boring so I need something little bit different.

Then I bought a book that contains 365 little Disney stories for children. I read it with the help of my electronic dictionary. When I come to a really usefull word I write it (and pinyin and translation) to my little notebook. I try to collect useful ones to that notebook from other sources too. Then I can carry it with me and check the words if I need to. I think I will remeber the words if I use them often enough.

Then I try to get back on Skritter. I add the words from my reading book, study them and then add to Skritter. I hope it helps me not forgetting something I’ve just learned.

I also tried to find a picture dictionary, but I only found one without pinyin so it’s useless for me. I think it would also be funny way to learn new vocabulary.

Because you’re not in China it’s not that easy to use the language. I recommend the old way of writing by hand, Skritter and books for kids. Also a book about Chinese radicals could be usefull, atleast I like to break the characters to smaller pieces and see what’s inside. You can do this with MDBG dictionary too.

Maybe the best way is to write stories/essays/anything by hand as often as possible. You could get a Chinese tutor to check your stories. By writing you learn new words but also learn how to use them.