This question is directed mainly at people who have learnt English or any other language to a near native level. I've been learning English for a very long time now, yet still whenever I open a book I come across words I don't know and have to look up in the dictionary frequently, enough to severley disrupt the reading pace. I would like you to share your experiences. How long does it take to be able to read without any problems? How many books did you have to read? I know even native speakers sometimes have to look in the dictionary, but it's not enough to ruin the experience... Maybe I have unrealistic goals, since the books I enjoy are often very literary or classics... Is it realistic to expect to be able to read such books easily for a non native?
vocabulary -- when does it end?
Well, it is neverending. There are endless of synoyms for expressing a particular idea. Guessing from context should help you for nailing down a meaning of a particular word.
To be honest, literaryworks involve a lot of archaic and many, many new words on eachpage as compared to other form of thereading. To me, people should not stick to the literaryworks all thetime-bring in some variety for a change. Reading literaryworks take away a lot of physical and mental energy. Bring in variety for sure, only possible remedy for you frustration.
We'll always come across new words no matter which book we should choose to study. Learning language is a life long process. In general, the literray works are the hardest form of the language.
BTW, your written English is top-notch.
To be honest, literaryworks involve a lot of archaic and many, many new words on eachpage as compared to other form of thereading. To me, people should not stick to the literaryworks all thetime-bring in some variety for a change. Reading literaryworks take away a lot of physical and mental energy. Bring in variety for sure, only possible remedy for you frustration.
We'll always come across new words no matter which book we should choose to study. Learning language is a life long process. In general, the literray works are the hardest form of the language.
BTW, your written English is top-notch.
I agree -- your written English sounds quite natural.
You should be getting to a point where you can figure out the rough meanings of words you don't know based on context; the more you read, the better you will get at this.
I suggest learning some of the Greek and Latin roots that English words commonly derive from: you might be surprised at how often they can come in handy.
You should be getting to a point where you can figure out the rough meanings of words you don't know based on context; the more you read, the better you will get at this.
I suggest learning some of the Greek and Latin roots that English words commonly derive from: you might be surprised at how often they can come in handy.
I completely understand what sometimes makes reading a somehow frustrating experience for a non-native. From time to time, I suddenly recognise, while reading a novel, that I do not quite get the atmosphere and mood of the story. Although I am able to understand and follow what is going on, I somehow think that reading the same book in my native language would be a more intense experience in terms of involvement and identification. And that is in my opinion because of words, especially adjectives, which are unknown to me. And yes you are right, in a lot of cases one can guess from the context what could be the meaning, but it is never as precisely to the point as it should be - to transport the mood the writer intended to create. Another problem is, that in my experience the older you get the fewer new words you are able to remember. Which means your vocabulary extends slower and slower - even if you look upa lot of words in the dictionary...
But still, you can only benefit from each book you fight your way through, I agree language learning is lifelong learning. And as long as you do not have to fight through every book you read, you will be enjoying it nevertheless!
But still, you can only benefit from each book you fight your way through, I agree language learning is lifelong learning. And as long as you do not have to fight through every book you read, you will be enjoying it nevertheless!
<<Another problem is, that in my experience the older you get the fewer new words you are able to remember. Which means your vocabulary extends slower and slower - even if you look upa lot of words in the dictionary...>>
I don't think it's all to do with age. Аnother problem is that by the time you reach that stage, you are dealing with the more rare words found predominantely in literature. Therefore there is less noticable of an improvement and a higher chance of forgetting the word, because you probably won't see it again for a year.
I don't think it's all to do with age. Аnother problem is that by the time you reach that stage, you are dealing with the more rare words found predominantely in literature. Therefore there is less noticable of an improvement and a higher chance of forgetting the word, because you probably won't see it again for a year.
It's an interesting question. I am living in China and I have learned most of the words on the government's list of 8800 words foreigners need to master to get an Chinese level 11 (HSK11). It is often said that 10,000 words will be enough for foreign learners, but there are enormous riders to add to that.
Firstly: what is a "word" differs from language to language. Some languages are highly inflected, so we must exclude inflected forms from the list. Take the word "abandon" for example. This as a "headword" must cover "abandons", "abandoning" and "abandoned". But should it cover "abandonment" also? I would argue that it shouldn't, because the formation of the noun is not obvious from the verb, but there are languages, like Chinese, where the same word would be used as a noun and a verb to cover both "abandon" and "abandonment". So: 10,000 words (headwords) will actually means slightly different things in different languages. However, I assume that 10,000 words are a reasonable collection of concepts in any language, and so in most languages you will probably be a proficient speaker with 10,000 words.
Secondly: there are differing studies on native speaker vocabulary. Some indicate that native speakers of English have vocabularies in the range of 20,000-50,000 words. However, by checking random pages in the Collins Millennium dictionary, I believe I have a vocabulary of 100,000 headwords as defined above. This is too large a vocabulary for a learner to realistically aim at, but 20,000 headwords might give you a vocabulary equal to that of the bottom end of the native speaker range, and would suffice for many purposes (but, once again, be insufficient for real literature).
Thirdly, I find from my study of Chinese that it is hard to remember out-of-the-way words, simply because they are not used often by native speakers, and so expanding your vocabulary from the 10,000 range to the 20,000 range is going to be problematic...
Firstly: what is a "word" differs from language to language. Some languages are highly inflected, so we must exclude inflected forms from the list. Take the word "abandon" for example. This as a "headword" must cover "abandons", "abandoning" and "abandoned". But should it cover "abandonment" also? I would argue that it shouldn't, because the formation of the noun is not obvious from the verb, but there are languages, like Chinese, where the same word would be used as a noun and a verb to cover both "abandon" and "abandonment". So: 10,000 words (headwords) will actually means slightly different things in different languages. However, I assume that 10,000 words are a reasonable collection of concepts in any language, and so in most languages you will probably be a proficient speaker with 10,000 words.
Secondly: there are differing studies on native speaker vocabulary. Some indicate that native speakers of English have vocabularies in the range of 20,000-50,000 words. However, by checking random pages in the Collins Millennium dictionary, I believe I have a vocabulary of 100,000 headwords as defined above. This is too large a vocabulary for a learner to realistically aim at, but 20,000 headwords might give you a vocabulary equal to that of the bottom end of the native speaker range, and would suffice for many purposes (but, once again, be insufficient for real literature).
Thirdly, I find from my study of Chinese that it is hard to remember out-of-the-way words, simply because they are not used often by native speakers, and so expanding your vocabulary from the 10,000 range to the 20,000 range is going to be problematic...