Learning vocabulary:

It seems that it is better to learn vocabulary, after a certain point in studying, when one comes across it in native material.

http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/2009/11/roberts-awesome-tricks-for-improving-your-vocabulary/

As mentioned in that article, someone learning a language very often does not have a sense of which words are more natural than others in the language. If you learn vocabulary as you come across it in native materials, you will naturally, over time, receive an impression, by simply frequency, of which words are used more frequently, and thus are more natural. Especially if you input from a variety of sources and from both reading and listening. Obviously, read and listen to what you want, as Khatz would support. This method seems better than just going through the dictionary or something (which has a certain appeal to me)--it is removed from the context of the real, living language.