kyogul

A while ago I read on a blog that memorizing direct translations of words hinders language learning. For example to memorize toe Spanish word for carne, most would memorize what it translates to in their main language (for me, English), meat. The blog continued to say that continuing down this route would lead to a dependency of mental translation whenever you hear words in the language you're learning, which I've already experienced a sliver of that in the Spanish classes I had to take in highschool. The blog suggested to memorize pictures instead of words or some other form of association, which is a simple solution, but it stops once you hit words that don't have visuals, such as articles and other various forms within grammar. I think association is a much better way than learning direct translations, but can anyone give me tips for the most effective route way of doing so, and also how to get over the aforementioned grammar block that lacks visuals?