Individual vocabulary is important, but conversation becomes much easier when your brain can retrieve groups of words together.
Instead of only learning:
думаю — DÚ-ma-yu — I think
Learn:
Я думаю, что…
ya DÚ-ma-yu shto…
I think that…
Instead of only learning:
знаю — ZNÁ-yu — I know
Learn:
Я не знаю.
ya nye ZNÁ-yu
I don’t know.
Instead of only learning:
нравится — NRÁ-veet-sa — like
Learn:
Мне нравится…
mnye NRÁ-veet-sa…
I like…
Now you aren’t assembling every sentence from individual pieces.
You’re pulling entire chunks from memory.
That makes conversation much faster.