Hi everyone,
I am a primary school English teacher in Hong Kong. My mother tongue is not English so I endeavor to update my English knowledge every day, especially for my vocabulary. But the process seems endless and somwhat painful. Now I still quite frequently encounter words that I do not know in newspapers and fictions no matter how hard I have been trying to enrich my vocabulary. I am not sure what level of vocabulary is considered adequate.
Actually is it because English vocabulary is profound or English is not my first language? But I do not have the same problem for my Chinese.
I learn new words by association. For example, I grouped 'cult', 'pagan', 'heresy', 'heathen' and 'fanatic' in my mental lexicon. Otherwise I would not be able to memorize their definitions or retrieve them in my writing. Do native speakers absorb new words naturally?
William
Learning English vocabulary
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fluffyhamster
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Still reading Dan Brown, William? 
Things will never be as easy for a non-native, at least not for a good many years and countless hours of reading and study. The best thing you can do, I think, is to take very careful note of the collocations on either side of the focal word and look for or think of examples that would allow you to use the word in your own speech e.g. A: Hey, long time no see, B! Where've you been? We though you'd gone and joined a cult or something!; Name some "cult" movies etc.
It's harder to think of "spoken" examples for the rest of the vocab there, so it's only natural that it should fade in your memory until the next time you read a religious-themed text; certainly, those words are not essential to know for most everyday conversational purposes (unless you have a sister who's run off with a Pagan)...although I appreciate you said you might need to "retrieve them in your writing" (in which case, you will have time to check a dictionary anyhow).
I would recommend, however, that you look closely at any new vocabulary and ask if it can be expressed in more basic language (works such as Longman's Language Activator, and thesauruses generally, are useful here, as are well-written definitions in the better of the lerner dictionaries); if more basic, reasonably concise terms can't be found, then chances are the word you're looking at is quite specialized and possibly of marginal use in informal conversation at least.
I hate to tell you this, but by the time most native speakers get to the time in their lives where they're buying airport fiction, they'll instinctively know the meaning of all four of those words; of course, they absorbed the words at some point before their meeting them in e.g. a Dan Brown book, perhaps from very clear educational texts...but regardless of source, it was the near-total command of the rest of the text that made the absorption of meaning so easy.'cult', 'pagan', 'heresy', 'heathen' and 'fanatic'... Do native speakers absorb new words naturally?
Things will never be as easy for a non-native, at least not for a good many years and countless hours of reading and study. The best thing you can do, I think, is to take very careful note of the collocations on either side of the focal word and look for or think of examples that would allow you to use the word in your own speech e.g. A: Hey, long time no see, B! Where've you been? We though you'd gone and joined a cult or something!; Name some "cult" movies etc.
It's harder to think of "spoken" examples for the rest of the vocab there, so it's only natural that it should fade in your memory until the next time you read a religious-themed text; certainly, those words are not essential to know for most everyday conversational purposes (unless you have a sister who's run off with a Pagan)...although I appreciate you said you might need to "retrieve them in your writing" (in which case, you will have time to check a dictionary anyhow).
I would recommend, however, that you look closely at any new vocabulary and ask if it can be expressed in more basic language (works such as Longman's Language Activator, and thesauruses generally, are useful here, as are well-written definitions in the better of the lerner dictionaries); if more basic, reasonably concise terms can't be found, then chances are the word you're looking at is quite specialized and possibly of marginal use in informal conversation at least.
Yup, I am reading Dan Brown's fictions. Let me finish all his fictions first, then I will go into Michael Crichton's ones. I like mysteries related to science/technology. Do you have any other good suggestions?
I like reading fictions because they give me wider vocabulary exposure. Although Hong Kong is a bilingual city, Cantonese is still the major spoken language so I don't live in an English-speaking environment.
As you said some words are not common in conversation, if I use them in my spoken discourse, will I sound 'weird'? For example, if my friend cooks some food for me, I am eating it and say,
(If it tastes bad)
a) "It tastes appalling!"
b) "It's ghastly!"
c) "Your food is dreadful!"
d) "It couldn't have been worse!"
e) "It tastes like mud!"
Are these expressions common? or which ones are not?
William
I like reading fictions because they give me wider vocabulary exposure. Although Hong Kong is a bilingual city, Cantonese is still the major spoken language so I don't live in an English-speaking environment.
As you said some words are not common in conversation, if I use them in my spoken discourse, will I sound 'weird'? For example, if my friend cooks some food for me, I am eating it and say,
(If it tastes bad)
a) "It tastes appalling!"
b) "It's ghastly!"
c) "Your food is dreadful!"
d) "It couldn't have been worse!"
e) "It tastes like mud!"
Are these expressions common? or which ones are not?
William
)I've found that when non-natives try to read American newspapers, vocabulary is only half of their problem. The other half is cultural. Newspaper writing is full of idioms, metaphors, imagery, and allusions to history or even pop culture. In other words, it is jam packed with cultural information and assumptions that are hiding between the lines. It makes the newspaper much more interesting to read for a native speaker, but much more difficult for a non-native.
I'm not sure there's much of a way to help you with this than to tell you that you should be expecting it.
Don't get discouraged. Your symptoms indicate that you have passed the threshhold of one reading level and are moving on to the next. It's painful, but remember that it happens to native learners, too (although at a younger age). Younger readers often don't have the life experiences to understand the metaphors, allusions, and symbolic language in that kind of writing. So when they come up against something they don't understand, they either figure it out from the context, or they ask someone. And that is my advice to you.
I'm not sure there's much of a way to help you with this than to tell you that you should be expecting it.
Don't get discouraged. Your symptoms indicate that you have passed the threshhold of one reading level and are moving on to the next. It's painful, but remember that it happens to native learners, too (although at a younger age). Younger readers often don't have the life experiences to understand the metaphors, allusions, and symbolic language in that kind of writing. So when they come up against something they don't understand, they either figure it out from the context, or they ask someone. And that is my advice to you.
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Andrew Patterson
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fluffyhamster
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Apologies for not being around as regularly as before (I'm in the process of changing ISP) or responding quicker, William, but I see you've been in good company!
Hmm, if a friend's cooking was actually pretty reasonable, I guess we could either "tell it like it is", or be ironic:
A: Wow, this is the tastiest thing I've ever eaten! You must give me the recipe!
B: Really?! Thanks!
A: Only joking! Ha!
B: Oh...
A: No, seriously, it's not bad/pretty good etc.
Obviously irony, sarcasm etc is going to use language that is a little less ordinary.
In the event that a friend's cooking really WAS diabolically bad, I suspect we'd "put a brave face on" whilst eating it and assure them it 'Really wasn't that bad' when they started apologizing for the yucky taste - you'd have to be cruel to be really truthfully blunt about it.
You aren't being literal when you utter those phrases, are you, William?!
Hmm, if a friend's cooking was actually pretty reasonable, I guess we could either "tell it like it is", or be ironic:
A: Wow, this is the tastiest thing I've ever eaten! You must give me the recipe!
B: Really?! Thanks!
A: Only joking! Ha!
B: Oh...
A: No, seriously, it's not bad/pretty good etc.
Obviously irony, sarcasm etc is going to use language that is a little less ordinary.
In the event that a friend's cooking really WAS diabolically bad, I suspect we'd "put a brave face on" whilst eating it and assure them it 'Really wasn't that bad' when they started apologizing for the yucky taste - you'd have to be cruel to be really truthfully blunt about it.
You aren't being literal when you utter those phrases, are you, William?!
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Andrew Patterson
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I think the most blunt and insulting thing to say would be, "I think I'm going to be sick!" Actually being sick would be more insulting again. Wasn't it George Bush Snr who actually managed to be sick on his own plate?
I think sensibilities are more likely to be offended by what is served rather than how it's cooked. Belgians happily eat horse, for instance, but most would be wary of offering it to anyone else. Meat offends against some people's sensibilities and certain meats against religious sensibilities. Then again, people go to Australia and eat witchiti grub precisely because it offends their sensibilities. Blackpudding disgusts many people though I find it delicious. You nearly always get it at British Airport restaurants, though if you order a Full English so some people may not know what they are eating.
I think sensibilities are more likely to be offended by what is served rather than how it's cooked. Belgians happily eat horse, for instance, but most would be wary of offering it to anyone else. Meat offends against some people's sensibilities and certain meats against religious sensibilities. Then again, people go to Australia and eat witchiti grub precisely because it offends their sensibilities. Blackpudding disgusts many people though I find it delicious. You nearly always get it at British Airport restaurants, though if you order a Full English so some people may not know what they are eating.