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What about unknown words in a book ? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5188 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 25 of 38 08 November 2010 at 9:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've finally gotten to the point with my Thai where I can read comic books without too much of a problem. I don't get all the details, but I can always follow what is happening. I'm guessing I know about 50% - 70% of the vocab.
Sometimes, I need to look up a word in the dictionary. However, struggling to figure out the meaning from context is much more rewarding, even if it take dozens of pages and repeated mentions until I finally have that "ah ha!" moment. Words learned through struggle are also much more ingrained in my mind, kind of like how embarassing conversation mistakes aren't easily forgotten. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| michau Tetraglot Groupie Norway lang-8.com/member/49 Joined 6218 days ago 86 posts - 135 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, NorwegianC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish, Sign Language Studies: Burmese, Toki Pona, Greenlandic | Message 26 of 38 08 November 2010 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's actually "rozumiem". I think such associations can help to learn words, you just need to use them to make mnemonic sentences, e.g. "I resumed talks with the Yemeni side to promote mutual understanding". Edited by michau on 08 November 2010 at 5:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6097 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 27 of 38 08 November 2010 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Like Iversen, I read intensively and extensively:
INTENSIVELY: Once every 10 pages of a book I'll study every word, word-ending, word-order and phrase. I'll first translate hyperliterally and then interpret into an English way of saying it. This type of reading is laborious, so I only do it strictly one in ten pages. But the advantages are more than just vocabulary building; I glean information about grammar (especially verb aspect and noun case) and can begin to spot how the language is shortened and modified in real sentences (not just the textbook way of saying it). EXTENSIVELY: Here I read most of the book (9 out of 10 pages) to get the flow of pronunciation and meaning without interuption. It helps get my eyes used to consonant clusters and I always read aloud. It helps build up my passive vocabulary and word association. I started on "Adventures of Basia" written for children around 12 years old. Edited by Mooby on 08 November 2010 at 11:44pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tiberius Diglot Groupie Moldova lawinmoldova.blogspoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6280 days ago 70 posts - 85 votes Studies: Romanian, Russian*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 28 of 38 15 November 2010 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Whether to look up every single word or not pretty much depends on the level of
proficiency you've already reached. So let me consider both beginner's and advanced levels. When you are just at the start of a long way with your new language, looking up every single word will turn into a nightmare. And that's why using parallel texts can be so useful. You read in foreign language. Then read the translation. And just learn the words and patterns that you think you may need or that you simply want to learn. It's just what I do with my French. I try to memorize all the words from my textbooks (which are usually the basic vocabulary). But when I try reading other books, I just pick up for memorizing separate words and phrases. With languages that you already master at a rather advanced level memorizing all (or most) of the words that you encounter may be a necessity if you wish to reach native- like fluency (or close to that). Why to do that? You never know which word and when you may need. Really, I sometimes learned the words that I thought I would never use and later it turned out they were quite useful. Then again, with just basic vocabulary we can understand the plot, we can catch quite well the essence of the text. But if you really want to enjoy the language, to relish it, than it all comes to details. A single seldom used word can be just a matter of taste and style, not more. But when you really understand it, reading turns into enjoyment rather than just getting new information and understanding the plot. So, how to do it in order not to be annoyed by constant checking of the dictionary? When I read a book in English (which I never stop learning), I can understand 99 % of the words. So, it's not a problem to read without looking up every single word and understanding almost everything. But. I still want to learn new words. So, I just read and underline new words or phrases. I only check new words if they are crucial for understanding the content or if they've caught my attention. Thus, I can read for chapters without annoying myself with dictionaries. And later, when it's time for real studies, I start my hard work over all those words that I left behind. In case of texts on Internet or some books where I cannot underline I simply use one of my pop-up dictionaries and then check its 'history' section to get back to the words I looked up previously. This way I do enjoy my reading, and still don't miss new words that I wish to memorize. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 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 29 of 38 15 November 2010 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually I still look up unknown words even when I have a parallel text. But the translation makes it much less laborious to read and understand a text, and I can look up the words later, before I make my wordlists, if that's more convenient. And why look up words if I can understand what they mean from the translation (or - with time - from the context)? Because I want to be sure I have got the correct main form, morphology, meaning (plus supplementary meanings and expressions even if I don't memorize it all). Being sure helps me to remember things. Edited by Iversen on 16 November 2010 at 12:06pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tiberius Diglot Groupie Moldova lawinmoldova.blogspoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6280 days ago 70 posts - 85 votes Studies: Romanian, Russian*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 30 of 38 15 November 2010 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
Exactly!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bolkonsky Diglot Newbie France Joined 5196 days ago 25 posts - 27 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 31 of 38 15 November 2010 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In fact I'm still reluctant about parallel text. I've tried it once and I've found it utterly useless. You feel that you read several times the same story (it's actually true) and sometimes when the plot is really interesting you can't help yourself reading right away the story in your mother tongue because of laziness and curiosity. Besides bilingual novels are particularly difficult to find. Edited by Bolkonsky on 15 November 2010 at 10:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| LittleBoy Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5302 days ago 84 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 32 of 38 16 November 2010 at 12:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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One thing I've found helpful is to read texts that I'm familiar with in English. For example, Harry Potter. In reading this in French, I've been able to understand the vast majority of the book, with roughly B2 level on the CEFR. I've also picked up some vocab along the way, and all without having to resort to a dictionary or English copy. If nothing else, it does wonders for confidence and satisfaction!
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