Do you think vocabulary is a pain?

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-11-17 15:59:41

本帖最后由鸭呼嘿于 2019-12-24 23:02 编辑

For people who are learning a foreign language without living in the communities where it is spoken, vocabulary, I feel, is the biggest obstacle that prevents them from successful or effective expression.

Adult native speakers in a particular language community share a common vocabulary, or a common main part of their vocabularies. The commom natural and social environment, lifestyle, and the consequent close, enormous, frequent communication yield the common vocabulary.

This leads to a great advantage relative to the foreign language learners: for native speakers，what words and expressions they know are what they need to know, that is, what they use; and what they need to use are what they have already known: what an easy and happy situation! There are tons and tons of words out there beyond their vocabularies, but they just do not need to know!

Yet more advantageouslly, as a child is learning new words and enlarging their vocabulary, they just learn those that they meet in real

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-11-17 16:01:00

Yet better, as a child is learning new words and enlarging their vocabulary, they just learn those that they meet in real life, along with perfect 'explanation' that you understand without even the least difficulty and you will never forget: the most natural and most comprehensive context; and they will use those words themselves in the future.

All that they need to know, they will meet; and all that they have known, they will use. There are tons and tons of words beyond their knowleage, but they don't care, because they just do not need to: how easy and happy they are!

Adults only learn new words occasionally. And still, what they learn is what they meet, and what they meet they will use. In one word, native speakers' vocabulary learning or acquisition is effortless but efficient.

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-11-17 16:01:45

For foreign language learners, though, vocabulary is a pain. You can't meet all the common words that are frequently used in the communities who speak the language you are learning, and you would learn a lot of nearly useless words some of which a considerable part of the native speakers don't even know.

The most important, namely most frequently used words, for each you have to meet and use several times to remember，or you will definitely face such senarios，again and again: you encounter a word，and you remember that you have met it somewhere or even tried to commit it to memory，but now it remains new to you: so familiar a stranger! Once and again，once and again!

While it takes so much labor to seize a fugitive word, and you know a native child can learn more than ten active words a day without even noticing，what's left for you to do is only cry!

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-11-17 16:02:18

本帖最后由鸭呼嘿于 2019-12-24 23:01 编辑

Quite a lot of common words for native speakers are outside of foreign language learners' command. The primary cause of this is the learners lack the real language environment where they will meet those words or will need and be able to use them.

A compensatory way out is to use the thesaurus. A comprehensive thesaurus will help a lot. For instance, you've just learned a word 'barrel', but you know it is not what you use to carry water to your garden to water the flowers, which has a handle. So you come to a thesaurus, look up it and go on to find its hypernym( for example, domestic appliances) where you'll find 'pail': the one you are looking for.

And a picture/visual thesaueus will be much more helpful, because it presents vivid interesting images and promotes memorizing.

So dear pdawiki users, do you know any online picture/visual dictionaries of English? Could you please give their links?

Gyngreenlie · 发表于 2019-11-17 20:08:50

鸭呼嘿兄，您的英语好棒哈。至少您写的比我好，向您学习。我觉得还是用Anki来背，效率不错。

sabrina2111 · 发表于 2019-11-17 21:56:12

嗯，写得很不错。不过可能不太会有那样专业的图片网站。就好比是蝴蝶，然后把各式各样的蝴蝶都归在一起，然后用图片加以区分，这也太专业了吧。一般的，生活类的没有图,有生活常识也能加以区分啊。而且一般词典也会有标注和图片的啊。

englishpatient · 发表于 2019-11-17 23:37:49

You've presented these tons and tons words to ask such a question?

V2E · 发表于 2019-11-18 12:36:54

https://visuwords.com/
This website may serve you well, as it seems to satisfy your needs.

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-11-19 09:33:09

Very good one, thank you v2e.

mxh3698 · 发表于 2019-12-8 03:40:24

For people who are learning a foreign language without living in the identical or corresponding language communities, vocabulary, I feel, is the biggest obstacle that prevents them from successful or effective expression.!
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For people learning a language without living in the country or region that language is spoken, vocabulary, or the lack of it, may constitute the biggest obstacle that prevents them from effectively expressing themselves.

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-12-23 10:34:27

mxh3698 发表于 2019-12-8 03:40
For people who are learning a foreign language without living in the identical or corresponding lang ...

For people who are learning a foreign language without living in the identical or corresponding language communities, vocabulary, I feel, is the biggest obstacle that prevents them from successful or effective expression.!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 z7 O( m! Z- s% n# r
For people learning a language without living in the country or region that language is spoken, vocabulary, or the lack of it, may constitute the biggest obstacle that prevents them from effectively expressing themselves.
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Sorry, but I didn't get you. What do you mean by rewriting the sentence into an incorrect one?

mxh3698 · 发表于 2019-12-23 13:32:14

For people who are learning a foreign language without living in the identical or corresponding language communities, vocabulary, I feel, is the biggest obstacle that prevents them from successful or effective expression.!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 z7 O( m! Z- s% n# r
For people learning a language without living in the country or region that language is spoken, vocabulary, or the lack of it, may constitute the biggest obstacle that prevents them from effectively expressing themselves.
-----------------------! F2 p/ ]9 g7 X
Sorry, but I didn't get you. What do you mean by rewriting the sentence into an incorrect one?
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sorry， but I didn't get you. What do you mean by calling my correct sentence an incorrect one?
do you think that identical or corresponding communities is the right way to say what you meant to say in English？
hey， And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

mxh3698 · 发表于 2019-12-23 16:48:45

Do you think vocabilary is a pain?
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I don't consider myself a nit-picking person, but I just cannot help but point out two possible mistakes in the title of this posting:
1. vocabilary
this must be a typo.
2. vocabilary is a pain
vocabilary cannot be a pain in itself, but the process of vocabulary acquisition can be.

如果俺错了的话，请一定不吝赐教。谢谢了先。

鸭呼嘿 · 发表于 2019-12-24 02:48:22

Thank you for your attention.
Sure, “Identical or”( in “---For people who are learning a foreign language without living in the identical or corresponding language communities, vocabulary, I feel, is the biggest obstacle that prevents them from successful or effective expression.----” ) should be deleted, or just say ".......without living where it is spoken".

"Vocabulary is a pain" is fine in grammar and natural to native English speakers' ears, though.

And there may be other mistakes in my writing. Welcome to pick them out.

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