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Reading without a dictionary | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 17 of 36 20 June 2006 at 8:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I believe so.
Chinese may have been a hasty "example" on my part because it also has a difficult writing system, but anything distant with an alphabet may also prove challenging for this method - I'll get to try this in practice when I start on Hindi.
This seems like a high number to me, but given that one probably starts out knowing at least half as many commonly used cognates with any Romance (and Germanic?) language, it just might be right. In practice, I just keep trying and if it clearly looks hopeless yet, go back to a simplified reader for a while. Edited by frenkeld on 20 June 2006 at 8:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6759 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 18 of 36 20 June 2006 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||
That figure (4000-5000 words) is definitely correct for Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 19 of 36 08 September 2006 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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For getting rid of dictionary, you must have a strong ability for guessing. It helps tremendously if you understand the linguistic development of your target language, and if you study the morphology, phonetics of the language or directly, the 'daddy language' - the one that generats the present one. I've only been studing French seriously for 5 months and now I can read Guy de Maupassant with rarely using a dictionary, because I'm also interested in linguistics and have a knowledge of Latin. I've been working on German for only 2 months or so and I mainly acquire the vocabulary without the reference to a dictionary, because I've studied a book about German philology. So really, some linguistic knowledge is needed, if you don't want to consult your dictionary tediously.
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| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 20 of 36 08 September 2006 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You must be referring to the style of reading without a dictionary where you think about and analyze the unfamiliar words you encounter. There is another way to read without a dictionary, which operates on a more subconscious level. You basically open a book and just read on at a brisk pace, hardly ever pausing to analyze anything, the only criterion being whether you are following the plot at least somewhat. This approach is likely not as powerful as the one you describe, but it can also be helpful. Edited by frenkeld on 09 September 2006 at 12:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6650 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 21 of 36 09 September 2006 at 9:52am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If there are too many words you don't understand, reading in a foreign language without a dictionary on hand can be frustrating and not very helpful.
If you read in a language you are studying and don't learn anything from it, use a dictionary. Have you tried reading with a one-way dictionary rather than a two-way dictionary? When I say a one-way dictionary, I mean a dictionary in the language that you are studying that provides definitions, not a dictionary that translates words between languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Topsiderunner Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6909 days ago 215 posts - 218 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 22 of 36 09 September 2006 at 10:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It really depends on how much you want to understand. If you already speak English or a Romance language you could probably skim anything written in another Romance language (except maybe Romanian) and start picking up cognates. Of course you won't understand much, but you will be building up a passive vocabulary.
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| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6675 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 23 of 36 09 September 2006 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Kato Lomb used this to great effect. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| linguanima Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 114 posts - 123 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Latin, German | Message 24 of 36 09 September 2006 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm puzzled. If reading is the main means of gaining vocabulary, for native or non-native speakers alike, then how does a native speaker gain his or her vocabulary - it seems to me almost AUTOMATICALLY. s/he would seldom use a dictionary and new words just flow in his/her brain.
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