Learning another language can be a daunting experience. At first you have high hopes, after all you are motivated and if millions of other people do it, why should you not succeed! After a little while the sobering process kicks in and we begin to wonder; why is it so terribly difficult!
There are a few aids we can use to ease the process of vocabulary learning. One of them are Picture Dictionaries.Picture Dictionaries differ greatly from regular dictionaries. We know them from our childhood days. They contain different themes - such as "On the farm" or "In the supermarket" and will show many illustrations - mostly things and situations that fit this specific theme. Studying with a picture dictionary is as relaxing as going through a magazine. Luckily there are Picture dictionaries around to cater for the adult market, either in print or online.
A software program called German Audio Gallery
features more than 800 digitized words and phrases in German. Topics include Alphabet, Weather, Numbers, etc. The software includes quizzes and subject dictionaries. There is a quiz for each chapter, so you can test your new knowledge, and German-English and English-German dictionaries.
Most printed German picture dictionaries aim for the children's market but a lot of them are suitable for the  adult language learner to make memorizing words more fun with their visual and context sensitive approach. The amount of content we are able to pick up this way is amazing. Words are abstractions of something real. When learning pairs of words (in our case in German & English) in a conventional textbook or dictionary we are dealing with two abstractions tied together. When looking  up new vocabulary in picture dictionaries  the words are directly associated with pictures, very useful since most of us learn better in a visual way.
Millet Books publishing house offers a wide range of picture dictionaries in German language for the German language learner.
Book Depository is an online bookstore based in the UK who deliver books to Australia without charging postage. A good resource for German language books and other material which might be unavailable at your local book store.
