>like a steep slope before you go down the hill and start picking up words like glue?
Well, as for me, it started becoming easier(the vocabulary aspect of course) once I've built some kind of core vocabulary through active studying that covers the majority of words that are used again and again in speech and text(like pronouns, the most used verbs, basic nouns for everyday objects, adverbs of time and location,…).
After that, I actually started delving into real material and later, looking up the words that I didn't know like you look up words of your native language.
>I have put away at least an hour every day
This is really good. Building habits is better than racing through 5 chapters one day and then not touching your books for 2 weeks.
>week and a half
Well, learning a foreign language is a personal endeavor that takes years and years of work and dedication for many people.
Have ever learned a foreign language before, as an adolescent or an adult? I think that right know you are still figuring out how you personally learn languages the best way. One of the reasons for the existence of hyperpolyglots is that these people figured out a method of language learning that suits their own brain the best. So they just keep applying it again and again.
Can you tell us how you actually approach the book which your sister gave to you and how you learn vocabulary? Maybe the method of the book is suitable for your sister but not for you.