I listen as much as possible. This is how I grow my language iceberg.
Knowing a word isn't a binary thing. It's a gradient:
1. Words you don't recognize at all
2. Words that sound familiar and you know you've heard before but don't yet know the meaning
3. Words you understand in the right context
4. Words you understand even with no context
5. Words that are "on the tip of your tongue" when you try to speak
6. Words that you've been able to use a few times in conversation
7. Words that you can spontaneously produce whenever you need them
In my experience, the more I listen and take in input, the more words progress up this gradient.
I think of input as the "food" that builds up your body of knowledge. I think you should take in a lot of input and do a little/moderate amount of output practice. Something like 5-10x as much input as you're outputting. Because the input will prime your brain to know these words are important, so they emerge more naturally when you do output practice.
Just my opinion, YMMV.
Knowing a word isn't a binary thing. It's a gradient:
1. Words you don't recognize at all
2. Words that sound familiar and you know you've heard before but don't yet know the meaning
3. Words you understand in the right context
4. Words you understand even with no context
5. Words that are "on the tip of your tongue" when you try to speak
6. Words that you've been able to use a few times in conversation
7. Words that you can spontaneously produce whenever you need them
In my experience, the more I listen and take in input, the more words progress up this gradient.
I think of input as the "food" that builds up your body of knowledge. I think you should take in a lot of input and do a little/moderate amount of output practice. Something like 5-10x as much input as you're outputting. Because the input will prime your brain to know these words are important, so they emerge more naturally when you do output practice.
Just my opinion, YMMV.
