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How to maintain passive vocabulary? | ||
Tags: Passive | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3979 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes  Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 26 March 2014 at 11:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I find it very difficult to maintain my passive vocabulary if the word is passive in my native vocabulary as well. For instance, I keep forgetting English words like "thyme". To tell the truth if I hear its equivalent in my native tongue I will know that my interlocutor is talking about some sort of plant, but I wouldn't recognise "thyme" in nature or in a photo, and probably I never uttered this word in my life.
Should I bother with such passive words that I cannot even recognise or conceptualise? Edited by Hungringo on 26 March 2014 at 11:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5590 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 2 of 7 27 March 2014 at 3:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, it would be sufficient, if you encountered such a word, to have the association "eatable plant" too. It is only important to know exactly that it is kakukkfű in your native language, if it has some cultural importance.
So: A) If someone eats his salad with thyme, well, remember, a sort of condiment, more is not interesting. B) If the damsel in distress gives the knight thyme, that would be interesting; why? (Answer: Thyme was said to give courage). PS. Biology (flora and fauna) was always a dark spot on my map of wisdom, so I discard nearly every botanical detail... 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3979 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 3 of 7 27 March 2014 at 10:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you. My dark spots are biology, sports and mechanics.
The other day I had to call a workman to fix something and when he asked me to pass him a certain tool I had no idea what he meant, so he had to step down and pick it himself. When he left I looked up the word in a dictionary but the Hungarian translation meant nothing to me. Now, I can't remember what it is called in either language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5590 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 4 of 7 27 March 2014 at 10:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, tools. I am always unsure how to call thingies like this.
When I wanted to buy in a shop a plunger and knew only a funny name one uses for it in the North of Germany (Pömpel), but nobody understood where I live now, I undertook a lengthy description of flexible rubber with a hollow and a stick... If your bath tub is full of stinking water, you will make every endeavour. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4819 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 5 of 7 27 March 2014 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
In British English, we tend to use "spanner" where American uses "wrench". However, in some specialist areas, we might also use wrench, like a torque wrench (where you can set a specific force not to be exceeded for delicate work), and this may be because the first such devices came from the USA. Similarly "pipe wrench". pipe wrench Some UK people might refer to the thing shown in Cabaire's Wiki article as a socket wrench, but I'd call the whole thing a "socket set", the small things that you insert "sockets", and the actual tool a "socket spanner" or maybe a "ratchet spanner". A more everyday kind of spanner is like this: spanner or wrench None of which helps the OP of course, except to remind us that every specialist field has its own specialist vocabulary, which might only be worth learning if you plan to make use of it.
I remember once in a German hotel I was trying to explain to the gentleman on reception that I was having problems with the waste trap pipe under the wash basin. In the end I resorted to diagrams, and he understood, and may have told me the German words, but I certainly don't remember them now, and am even hazy about the correct English words. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4630 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 6 of 7 27 March 2014 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I know the feeling - and I will soon face such a situation because I have to take my car to service, and I get it serviced across the border in Germany (it is cheaper and service is better). As the car mechanic does not speak either English or French very well, I will have to tray and explain in German what I want done, and understand what he means if he says that X "ist kaputt". As someone totally uninterested in car mechanics, I hardly know all the technical words in my own language so it is quite a challenge, but I've found it very useful to surf the net for German sites about cars and car repairs. However, I am afraid that when the next service must be done in two years' time, I will have forgotten most of the words I am trying to learn right now. Edited by Ogrim on 27 March 2014 at 3:57pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5757 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 7 27 March 2014 at 5:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh but thyme smells so nice! And you can use it for herbal teas and inhalation to ease coughs!
But seriously, if you don't know the word in your native language *and* don't use the word in your second language, why should you learn it? "Some kind of tool" or "a species of butterfly I've never seen in my life" or "a poisonous plant" is just the kind of information you actually need if you ever come into a situation where you should indeed learn how to identify and handle that item. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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