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Not learning certain vocabulary groups? | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| nikolic993 Diglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 3832 days ago 106 posts - 205 votes  Speaks: Serbian*, English Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian | Message 1 of 19 26 January 2015 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Does anyone else avoid learning certain vocabulary groups, or do you try to learn every new word you encounter?
I'm doing Assimil Italian and Romanian right now and I always skip learning the names of dishes, food and spices. Even when I used to try to remember them, I would always forget. I guess I just don't find them useful and practical to learn, but if I were to live in the country where my TL is spoken, I would probably learn them. What about you? Are there any vocabulary groups that you avoid learning? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4759 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 19 26 January 2015 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I pay less attention to them, but after living in Romania I found the names of the dishes
very relevant. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4151 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 3 of 19 26 January 2015 at 3:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are no vocabulary groups that I avoid learning, as a rule, but...
1. I don't learn everything that I encounter straight away after the first encounter (i.e. I ignore some things until I feel ready for them or until I have the time), and 2. I don't necessarily aim to learn all types of words actively. For example: while I was still struggling with being able to express myself with relative ease in French, I didn't bother learning any plant names (basic fruits and vegetables aside). Knowing that a word referred to some kind of tree or a flower was more than enough for me. I considered such words frivolous, given that I had to put my time towards learning to converse, to read contracts, and to discuss building construction. The vocabulary groups vary depending on the language and the situation, though. My Breton isn't up to the standard that my French was when I found plant names frivolous, but I subscribe to a Breton ethnobotany newsletter and enjoy learning the local names of plants. Whereas I was under pressure to improve my French quickly, this isn't the case with Breton. Also, I'm most likely to use Breton to speak to the older generation about life in the country and old customs, which makes it useful vocabulary. With French, I needed to be able to speak to the notary public, the mayor, the bank, the plumber... 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4286 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 4 of 19 26 January 2015 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't learn some local and traditional things plus religious topcs. I mean I know what is Weihnachten, but I
don't like going deeper on such matters until I am in the country and have to face this stuff. And I have watched all eight seasons of House M.D. not bothering about the names of diseases and procedures. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6755 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 19 26 January 2015 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Two situations:
1) If I just want to learn a few words in order to have fun during a voyage abroad then I go for things that have a relevant meaning, like names for animals in Swahili. But that's not really learning a language in my opinion. Grammar words are not important in this situation. 2) If I really want to learn a language I learn the 'grammatical' words as soon as possible and on top of that I rely on the words I find in the texts I study. Of course that implies that scientific items pop up far too early, but for me they are more important than names for things in a standard house or 'human interest vocabulary'. And they are easier because they often are loan words. With languages where I don't have the benefit of knowing a related language extremely well my first texts (and consequently: words) may be plucked from a standard textbook, but I try to switch to more interesting stuff as soon as possible. And that inevitably means a vocabulary which caters more to science and culture than it does to the daily life of an ordinary citizen. And no, I don't try to learn all names of the plants in any language, not even my own. But, birds ehh .. I'm tempted to try. Edited by Iversen on 26 January 2015 at 5:02pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5314 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 19 26 January 2015 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's a blizzard warning for New York City, today, tonight and tomorrow. I have a Brazilian friend visiting there right now. So I sent her an email today warning of a "nevasca" (blizzard), "snowdrifts"(montes de neve) and "dangerous wind-chill factor" (sensação térmica perigosa). Given that most of the Lusophone countries are tropical, this isn't common, everyday vocabulary in Portuguese. Perhaps there may be blizzards on a rare occasion in Portugal, but I doubt it happens very often.
So, I had to research the snowstorm associated vocabulary in Portuguese today. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chiara-sai Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3760 days ago 54 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German, Japanese | Message 7 of 19 26 January 2015 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't learn words that I don't even know in my native language, such as most vegetables. I don't feel any
less fluent in English just because I don't know what an aubergine is, I wouldn't know it in Italian either! On the other hand I might learn very technical vocabulary early on if it is related to fields that interest me. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6194 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 8 of 19 26 January 2015 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
I have found this to be very true for a number of my languages. Especially for unfamiliar foods, the best I can do is learn the name of the dish along with a description or approximation of what it is (e.g. Croatian ćevapčići as "small pieces of grilled ground meat", Swahili biriani as "highly-spiced rice and meat dish", Persian دوغ as "carbonated yogurt drink with mint") when I enter them into my Anki. However, these often end up being meaningless to me and I can't connect the term with the concept until I have actually visited the country or tried the real dish. After this, they usually stick with little or no effort, and I find it quite entertaining to reread my previous attempts at describing a food item that I had never experienced before. And it's always interesting to finally try one of those foods for the first time after having only read the vague description of them, and having that "Ohhhhh, THAT'S ćevapčići/biriani/دوغ/țuică!?"-moment. On the other hand, vocabulary pertaining to birds, plants, and trees usually never becomes so contextualized (at least for me) so I usually don't bother to learn those terms, at least not on an active level. There are exceptions, of course -- my Chinese professor last semester required us to learn the words for dozens of these concepts, including probably 20 or more kinds of birds. On the final exam, we actually had a question that was "list all of the birds you know in Chinese in order of size". Of course, everyone in the class was horrified, but we were astonished to realize just how many names of birds (and other animals, plants, and trees) we had internalized over the course of the semester. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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