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Lacking vocabulary in certain areas? | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| On_the_road Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4556 days ago 23 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 20 28 November 2011 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I recently discovered that I did not know the English words for a lot of kitchen utensils, which I thought was a bit strange since those are things one use every day. Have you made any discoveries where you realised that you lack vocabulary in areas you didn't expect? Edited by On_the_road on 28 November 2011 at 8:31pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5566 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 2 of 20 28 November 2011 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I found recently that I didn't know the names of lots of kitchen utensils in French or
German - it took me only a few minutes to rectify that but it still surprised me. I suppose the reason I didn't know them was because although I use them every day, I didn't actually begin to like cooking until a few months ago - and so didn't really have much reason to know the words for them until I started using French and German recipes. Another area I know I lack knowledge in is rugby terminology. My family follows rugby pretty closely so it's important for me to be able to talk about rugby in English, Welsh, occasionally French when my Welsh relatives have French friends over to watch games and once in a blue moon in Italian. I don't have a clue how to talk about rugby in my strongest foreign language, which is German - but why should that bother me? I don't know any German speakers who are also into rugby, so I'd be much more likely to say "On a marqué un essai" than "Sie haben einen Versuch erzielt" - and I'm not even sure if the terminology for the German bit is right, but I imagine so. So for me, whether I rectify the gaps in my knowledge or not really depends on whether I think I'd ever use the words. With things like kitchen terminology yes, I'd need that in all my languages, but slightly more specialised things, it depends whether I associate the language in question with that particular thing or not. Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5647 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 20 28 November 2011 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
This is not a real problem because rugby is not popular in Germany at all. Almost nobody knows the rules (I don't either) and rugby is never broadcasted on German TV. So for 99,5 % you will not meet any German people who want to talk with you about rugby in German. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 28 November 2011 at 3:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5230 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 4 of 20 28 November 2011 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | ||
This is not unusual. You simply have not been exposed to this vocabulary. This why it is so important to have a wide range of materials. If you watched a cooking program on television or read a cookbook, you wouldn't have this problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| microsnout TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Canada microsnout.wordpress Joined 5271 days ago 277 posts - 553 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 20 28 November 2011 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
I have a friend who recently discovered a lack of vocabulary in his native language at an awkward moment. Although a native French speaker (québécois) he is completely bilingual but had learned all the vocabulary associated with sailing and boating in English. Talking on the VHF radio while entering a port in Québec, he failed to understand basic directions (tribord and babord) which since he was speaking perfect native French lead the harbour master to conclude he was inexperienced at boating (which was not the case). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4572 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 6 of 20 28 November 2011 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have noticed that my biggest gap in English is medical and/or anatomical vocabulary. Normally I read Wikipedia articles in English, even on topics like philosophy and physics, but when it comes to articles about diseases or internal organs I usually have to switch to the Russian version. However, this has not impaired my enjoyment of House M.D., so I don't feel any pressure to close this gap right now :). Of course, it would be different if I were planning to move to an English-speaking country; in that case I would start reading up on anatomy and medicine.
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| Eltwish Diglot Newbie United States larrykenny.com Joined 4582 days ago 13 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, German | Message 7 of 20 28 November 2011 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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One of the times I realized how far I still had to go in Spanish was when it occurred to me to look up the names of trees and realized how few I would have correctly translated or had even heard of. I can't really identify trees in my native language anyway, so I'd mostly be concerned with passive tree-knowledge, but there were so many basic Spanish tree names I'd never even seen. For consolation I tell myself that if I'm at the point where I feel I ought to know elms from oaks in my target language, I'm doing alright.
As far as rugby, there are probably thousands of non-native speakers who could talk circles around me in the subject, and having never so much as seen a rugby game, I'm presently okay with that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RatoDePorão Pentaglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4651 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish, French, Italian Studies: German | Message 8 of 20 28 November 2011 at 11:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've never cared about vegetables' names, I always say "that piece of bush" to greeny things and I've never cared about some animals either, like Racoon and Possum are the same thing to me, even in my mother tongue, it's like I just couldn't care less, you know?!
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