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How many words you learn per year (avg) | ||
Tags: Poll | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4519 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 153 of 229 13 May 2015 at 11:00am | IP Logged | ||
If my English was bad, I'd rather send this to communicate, than send nothing at all. It's an issue of having to communicate at all, not a question of wanting to communicate properly. No one wants to sound silly. They simply do and try their best not to. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5048 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 154 of 229 13 May 2015 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||
Slacker! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 155 of 229 13 May 2015 at 11:43am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, I agree with Jeffers that it's overkill (for me the "per language" part is). I think I once learned about 3000 Finnish words in a year, and I've reached the same figure with Finnish+English too, but before I started learning many languages I wasn't using my potential fully (and I think that's a major reason why I generally recommend people to try simultaneoud learning). I do wonder whether Cavesa is referring to "mainstream" languages here. Sanskrit or Ancient Greek words probably take more effort than Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5120 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 156 of 229 13 May 2015 at 11:44am | IP Logged | ||
We've seen how word estimates can be off by 3.9 times. As an accountant, I can't help but stress that the poll is flawed and does not really show what it seems to show. But a lot of our polls are like that, so not that it really bothers me :D I feel that many posters give advice along the lines of "go slow" and "take it easy", and none say "work harder". Newbies are seen as very fragile. It's probably a culture thing, in my culture we push students. And my favourite quote is: He didn't know it was impossible, so he went ahead and did it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Improbably Diglot Newbie Norway Joined 4748 days ago 34 posts - 87 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English | Message 157 of 229 13 May 2015 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | ||
This reminds me of a very interesting blog post written by a Korean who did some really intensive learning of English, using a vast amount of rote learning, and doing 30,000 words in 2.5 years: Link to blog post. While I don't quite agree with the use of rote learning (I'm a heavy user of mnemonics in my vocabulary learning), I have no doubt that many of us could use a little more, for lack of a better term, self-discipline, in many areas of life. (This is something I'm working actively on developing in myself, though it's a hard slog.) Not everyone is able to enjoy every moment of their language learning. Some people have more utilitarian reasons for learning a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 158 of 229 13 May 2015 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Newbies are not seen as fragile, but as prone to burnout. The whole world is already telling them that they simply need to work hard enough and they'll achieve everything they want. (or the opposite, that you can't learn a language without going abroad etc) In this discussion, everyone but s_allard takes it for granted that words are not everything you need. But to a newbie that's not common knowledge.
This makes me think of a language learning book or article, possibly the one by Spivak. As a child, the (Russian) author used to think that all you need to learn English is to learn the alphabet. Soon enough he found out that the words are also different, and he thought you just need to learn all the words. Then breaking news came, the grammar is also different. Of course he then found out that even if you know the needed words and grammar, you can't translate literally. That learning a new language is learning a new way of thinking. And especially with monolingual English speakers, we can't know which of these stages they're at, so we make sure to point out the very basics. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4721 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 159 of 229 13 May 2015 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for your response Serpent. Most people begin language learning thinking it is possible, but thinking it will be quick and easy if they just put in enough effort. What we often see on HTLAL are newcomers who say, "I'm going to get to B2 in 3 months" or whatever. I usually follow these threads out of interest, and if have yet to see a single one of these threads end in success. Normally the poster just stops posting after a few weeks. Possibly they succeeded in their goal, and just didn't post about it, but I think that's unlikely. What we don't get on HTLAL are people saying, "I want to learn to B2 and I don't want to work hard." Those cases are handled by language publishers. :p
The point isn't that learning a language is impossible, the point is that it takes time and effort. I'm pretty sure it's possible to learn a language to B2 in 3 months, but I've yet to meet a person in real life who has done it (although I'm quite sure several of the hard core HTLALers have probably done similar feats). The other point is that for most of us learning a language is a fun hobby. For most of us, then, if it stops being fun it stops being a hobby. Effort doesn't stop it being fun, but when the effort becomes drudgery then most of us are ready to quit. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4519 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 160 of 229 13 May 2015 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I managed B2 Swedish in about 4 months. That's the closest I've gotten (reading Swedish
at a stage where I could freely enjoy novels after a few months). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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