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Tags: Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6318 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 1 of 14 02 February 2010 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||
One of the decisions I've recently made in my studies is to focus for the time being on Mandarin, while building up, polishing and refining my German and French. A large part of my work on the latter two languages involves vocabulary and idiom learning. The reason for this was largely sparked by a post made by an accomplished polyglot called Mike Campbell (known on the forums here as Glossika). About his Mandarin learning experience, he writes:
The topic for this thread is the importance you place on knowing such words in your foreign languages. I've read comments here saying that a ridiculously huge vocabulary isn't necessary unless your job demands it, but I find myself using these words in my native English rather often. Another issue that comes up is this whole business of depth vs. breadth. Do I want to range across a whole lot of languages but not have the expressive power to back myself up in all situations, or do I want to know a core set of languages where I have the ease of communication that I have in my native language? It's difficult to strike the right balance, I'm trying to do it myself, but I find the major - certainly not the only - but the major obstacle to this is simply vocabulary. So there you have it, my war of the words. It is often rather like a battle, me versus the sea of lexus! Edited by ChristopherB on 02 February 2010 at 1:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6472 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 2 of 14 02 February 2010 at 10:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I never worried much about this. As soon as I'm past the textbook stage and know all the grammar, I don't actively seek out vocabulary lists or do memorization anymore. I just try to use the language in the way that I'd like to use it in the future, and whatever vocabulary comes up there is the vocabulary I will acquire.
This has meant that I acquired literary vocabulary in English fairly early, and also the vocabulary necessary to understand the news and to have arguments about politics, while my vocabulary for household items was atrocious until I moved in with my American boyfriend. My vocabulary relating to plants and to woodworking is still very very basic. But I don't mind, because if I needed those words, I would have picked up on them by now. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6318 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 3 of 14 02 February 2010 at 10:11am | IP Logged | ||
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It's possible I am placing too much emphasis on this area, since I've never been in a true immersion environment, so I am essentially resigned to picking up these words through explicit study. I suppose being in the country and simply using the language is enough to enhance your vocabulary? Until that happens, part of me can't help but imagine scenarios where I hit a roadblock, simply not knowing a word I want and having either to resort to English or to a dictionary to learn it. Since there are so many such words, I have this rather quixotic desire to get as many of them "taken care of" in advance as I can, to limit the number of awkward conversations I would have at least partly from just not knowing enough words!
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| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5587 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 4 of 14 02 February 2010 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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For Spanish, I translate everything I hear into my target language. Anything that I can't translate on the fly I will learn/study. :) Of course I want to be fluent to a VERY HIGH level in Spanish and German.
It's tedious, because you realize how many things that you DON'T know lol :( but it's a great learning tool! Try it! -Jordan 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5925 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 5 of 14 02 February 2010 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Either you master the vocabulary you need or you become a master of circumlocution!
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| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5611 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 14 02 February 2010 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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For things like science, animal names and planets I recommend trying to babysit or otherwise hang out with kids who speak the language (and hopefully have a passion for science and stories and inventions) :) You will learn the BEST vocab, seriously! I will never get over the stories my Spanish-speaking niece tells me about the stratosphere and Mars and panthers and things. I've picked up a lot of interesting words from her.
Also reading literature will give you more poetic and descriptive language, or choosing books/podcasts/magazines on specific topics you are interested in. Basically my main advice is to have fun! I think that's why I love learning words from my niece, because we are always having fun with explaining our ideas and inventions. You will learn way more if you are enjoying what you are reading or watching, as opposed to learning things from a dictionary or list. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5734 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 7 of 14 03 February 2010 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I've been doing this too. If there's a word or phrase I can't translate, I jot it down in my notebook. It makes people-watching in coffee shops and things an absolute BLAST. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6472 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 8 of 14 03 February 2010 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | ||
I still haven't been in an immersion environment for English! I literally only had a few weekend class trips to London under my belt by the time I became fluent. My secret was reading a lot, voice-chatting a lot and contributing to online forums on the topics that I was interested in. I actually refused to memorize the lists of vocabulary that came with our English textbook at the time (relating to "issues" ranging from pollution to euthanasia), and I picked up on the words anyway, in their natural habitat. Not all language-learning has to be sweaty! You have to work to get to a level where you can use native materials and enjoy it, but from then on it's all downhill if you can just get out of study mode. Don't be afraid of not knowing a word. It's going to happen less and less often, even if you change environments. Learning a word in a real-life situation, rather than from a book, is usually a lot more effective anyway. For example, a dozen years ago I was trying to tell my online monolingual American friend that I had just seen a squirrel outside my window, except I didn't know the word 'squirrel' (Eichhörnchen) and my dictionary was out of range. So I told him "it has a bushy tail and runs up trees quickly". We had a good laugh and he suggested the word 'squirrel'. Later, he sent me an e-mail with my description as a title and a picture of a squirrel enclosed. I never forgot the word again, and the whole was a lot more entertaining than going over a wordlist. Don't deprive yourself of situational learning! 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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