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
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