First of all conversational level in Mandarin = RESPECT. Awesome.
Thank you Julianna for the encouragement and suggestions. I totally agree with the statement “the more pressure there is, the more you forget or don’t retain”. Indeed that is exactly what has been happening. I am no longer concerned with catching up to fellow students. Learning process is smoother, now that I don’t worry about getting it all done at top speed. I was being greedy and wanted to learn it all in a short span of time.
I have indeed tried out the visual tricks you have mentioned, and in that I find Kanji to be much easier than the other 2 forms of alphabet. The more visual the better, forgot all about it. 
Thank you for reminding me that. I needed it so much; it is easier to get lost in negative chain of thought process. I guess we just need the periodical reminder to boost us back on to the right path.
The getting distracted part is still a royal pain, but whatever time I spend on studying at least it is not all going in vain, I retain at least 70% and need a better strategy for vocab drill. Let me go find those picture dictionaries 
And all the very best on learning Cantonese. Next stop for me aft Japanese is Korean and French. 😯
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