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Words that stick instantly | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Cattius Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5574 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Polish | Message 1 of 17 18 November 2011 at 11:41pm | IP Logged |
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I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
When learning a new language (especially in a new language family) some words are stubborn and take maybe 20 impressions to learn well and others stick instantly the first time you see them. I'm talking about "brand new words" with no real link such as being a cognate. I just started learning Polish and two examples that come to mind are chleb(bread) and chomik (hamster.) I wonder what kind of quality some words have that stick so quickly and without effort and if there is a technique to make these phenomenon work for all the other words. EDIT: P.S. Please reply with some words like this for you. Maybe we've had some shared experience with instantly remembered words. Edited by Cattius on 19 November 2011 at 12:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6481 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 2 of 17 19 November 2011 at 1:36am | IP Logged |
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Calamistrum is latin and means curling iron. I’ve known it since the first time I looked it up. I don’t know why it
stuck. I think that words have to look unique and not too similar to other words for being easily remembered. Akkadian words for me are a nightmare because they _all_ en in -um if they’re nouns, verbs or adjectives (and a lot of adverbs also end with -um) and many of them are very similar to eachother due to to the phonological constraints of Akkadian. One exception that I felt stuck is the word gitmālum and it means noble. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mauritz Octoglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 4890 days ago 223 posts - 325 votes Speaks: Swedish*, EnglishC2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Esperanto, French Studies: Old English, Yiddish, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean, Portuguese, Welsh, Icelandic, Afrikaans | Message 3 of 17 19 November 2011 at 10:30am | IP Logged |
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I actually find Akkadian words easy to remember because of the phonological
constraints. Languages with a lot more phonemes usually make it harder for me to really make the words stick, as it mostly means that I'm more or less unaccustomed to the sounds of the language. That's the reason why, I guess, Italian, Yiddish and Turkish words are very easy for me to remember. Mandarin is also usually not too difficult, but the tones take much more time. On the other hand, Arabic words often confuse me but I've noticed that it's getting easier. So I guess that the point I want to make is that words are more willing to get settled in your brain if you are very used to the sound system of the language. Of course, this is not always true. There are many, many words that you just happen to know. These are often ironically the words that you've not tried to remember, while the words that you really want to know just won't stick. My method for learning these words is just to not really try; they will stick eventually and it never works for me to learn them by force. Language learning is a long process and there's no hurry, so it's best just to wait for them. At times I've noticed that I suddenly know them or even that I encounter the words in my dreams. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6481 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 4 of 17 19 November 2011 at 11:13am | IP Logged |
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Mauritz: Now I’m ever so curious, but, Swede who has experience with Akkadian?! Have you studied at UU or by
yourself? Have you leant it well, or just some comparative stuff to enhance your Arabic? — (Sorry for offtopicing but.. I just had to!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4710 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 5 of 17 19 November 2011 at 11:20am | IP Logged |
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One day when I was about 16 and at school (about 14 years ago) I randomly looked up the word for moisturising cream in Turkish - being the language nerd I am, I used to carry my Turkish-English dictionary around with me lol :p even now I can still remember it being nemlendericikrem - excuse the spelling.
Also the Swedish word "förut" stuck in my head altho it took a few look ups in the dictionary to remember what it meant... I often get English words stuck in my head for a few days too so I guess it's probably just a "thing" my brain does lol. I think words stick for me if I hear them and like the sound of them, or if they sounded so wierd to me that they created a larger reaction within me. Edited by WentworthsGal on 19 November 2011 at 11:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rivso Diglot Groupie FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4699 days ago 41 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Dutch, Japanese | Message 6 of 17 19 November 2011 at 12:32pm | IP Logged |
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I find this happens a lot when I hear a word that sounds the same as one in a language I already speak, I guess that's kinda normal though
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| On_the_road Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4578 days ago 23 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 7 of 17 19 November 2011 at 3:01pm | IP Logged |
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This happens quite often for me, often it is words that are a bit unusual in their form that I tend to memorize easiest. For instance, the English word countenance was really easy for me to learn. On the other hand, words that are simliar to one another I sometimes can have quite some problems with. A classic example for me that I had to struggle with for some time before I could learn not to confuse them are the words dispair and dismay
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| Leipzig Hexaglot Newbie Wales Joined 4625 days ago 22 posts - 33 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchC2, Lowland Scots, SpanishC2, Portuguese, Catalan Studies: Welsh, Tok Pisin, German, Italian | Message 8 of 17 19 November 2011 at 6:33pm | IP Logged |
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I find it exactly the same as stated in the OP - some words are real buggers to remember,
whilst others slot in my mind almost effortlessly. They tend to come in a few different categories: - Cognates, difficult to forget - False friends, because the story of how they differ is enough to remember them - Plain odd - and usually useless - words that stick because I found them unusual (examples: épouvantable, zurumbático, wedi blino) - Words that look/can be pronounced sort of like words in languages I know, making it easy to allot a mnemonic (e.g. dim in Welsh = 'no, not' = no brain, dim; balai in French = broom = 'dancing a 'ballet' with un balai.') 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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