Last week I posted on the top 10 words and phrases to master when learning any language.  It elicited some great responses from people some surprised I hadn’t include one word or another, others suggesting new categories of words.  The title of the post was of course tongue-in-cheek – the real point was to encourage people to think about the relative importance of different words and phrases they are studying.

When learning a language not all words and phrases are created equal.  Not only can focussing on the “right” words/phrases lead to accelerated improvement in your communication skills, conversely a trying to master too much vocabulary too early can actually be counterproductive.

I will explain this in a moment but just to add a little bit of credence to this post let’s take the Top 10 idea and turn it into a more meaningful illustration. Tony Buzan– the inventor of “mind maps” and all around memory guru explored the importance of specific words in came up with a list of 100 key words in his book ‘Use Your Memory’.

Based on his analysis the words or their equivalents in foreign languages (shown at end of post) comprise around 50% of all the words used in normal conversations. Whether it is 50% or not is not important, and as my colleague Gareth observed out there will of course be some cultural variation but what is intuitively obvious is that the meanings conveyed (not necessarily the literal translations) by those words in the list add significantly more weight to your language skills than say a list of common foods, medical conditions and zoo animals (as entirely practical as those nouns and adjectives may be in specific scenarios with specific requirements).

So, why can the opposite (that is too much vocabulary) be counterproductive?  It is mainly a problem for beginners or casual learners who all need as much learning juice as possible (AKA motivation) to overcome the inevitable learning curve (AKA total confusion and frustration) when learning a language.  However it can also be a problem for more established learners, where “flashcard procrastination” can sneak into study patterns.

For the first group to maintain momentum and push through the frustration it is important to start meaningfully communicating as quickly as possible and thus start seeing reward for their effort.  Hours of work to memorise all the fruits and vegetables as opposed to Buzan’s Top 100 is not likely to achieve this unless you are a green grocer wanting to compare notes in a foreign country.  That sort of vocabulary is often best absorbed when you need it (i.e. looking it up before you go to a green grocer when you will be “in the mood”), and while I am certainly not saying it should never be studied pro actively just be aware of the relative importance of concepts you are trying to master and focus on learning key elements first.

“Flashcard procrastination” which affects more advanced students is where people make up for a period of ebbing enthusiasm by nailing a stack of new vocabulary.  Again, it is not to say this is not useful, it clearly adds to your knowledge and helps to keep the truck rolling, but I can say from personal experience it is often a very passive process that is often little more than a distraction.  Be conscious of this when you study and try and break your pattern if you feel yourself falling into it.

I overran the word limit a few paragraphs ago, so I will wrap it up and hope to receive any thoughts, complaints, arguments, suggestions below.  If you take one thing from this post it is this “not all words are created equal”.  Engage with your learning, focus on meaning and depth not just numbers and your language will improve dramatically.

Good luck!

Simon

Top 100 most useful words

from ‘Use Your Memory’, Tony Buzan, BBC Books, London, ISBN 0-5633-37102-1

1. a, an      2. after      3. again      4. all        5. almost

6. also       7. always     8. and        9. because    10. before

11. big       12. but       13. (I) can   14. (I) come  15. either/or

16. (I) find  17. first     18. for       19. friend    20. from

21. (I) go    22. good      23. goodbye   24. happy     25. (I) have

26. he        27. hello     28. here      29. how       30. I

31. (I) am    32. if        33. in        34. (I) know  35. last

36. (I) like  37. little    38. (I) love  39. (I) make  40. many

41. one       42. more      43. most      44. much      45. my

46. new       47. no        48. not       49. now       50. of

51. often     52. on        53. one       54. only      55. or

56. other     57. our       58. out       59. over      60. people

61. place     62. please    63. same      64. (I) see   65. she

66. so        67. some      68. sometimes 69. still     70. such

71. (I) tell  72. thank you 73. that      74. the       75. their

76. them      77. then      78. there is  79. they      80. thing

81. (I) think 82. this      83. time      84. to        85. under

86. up        87. us        88. (I) use   89. very      90. we

91. what      92. when      93. where     94. which     95. who

96. why       97. with      98. yes       99. you       100. Your

Use Your Memory

Tony Buzan. BBC Active 2003, Paperback, 196 pages, $48.82