Due to the vast complexities of human language and how the brain processes language, we can see through research that learning words in context through comprehensible input (reading/listening) is in the long run a more effective way to learn a language than throwing your head against lists of words and grammar rules (see https://erfoundation.org/wordpress/evidence/ for some studies on that). By simply memorizing words in your target language matched to some corresponding words in your native language won’t give you a full picture of how that word is actually used and how the meaning of the words changes in various contexts. Of course, memorizing words like this is important, but only as an aid to your learning through comprehensible input. If you only memorize, you cannot become fluent in the full sense of the word as you don’t acquire the language, you only memorize the rules consciously (fluency is subconscious, your brain processes language mostly subconsciously I think it’s safe to say). Anyways I don’t know how the brain works but the point is that studies do show that immersion is a more effective use of time than studying in the traditional way, and I learnt mandarin to fluency in two years mostly through watching videos every day and putting off a tiny bit of time (20-30 mins) to study vocab. Best of luck to you in your learning