Learning words and the use of the dictionary
Steve talks about the importance of learning words and the limited role of dictionaries in language learning
Steve talks about the importance of learning words and the limited role of dictionaries in language learning
Go to System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu and turn on the “Russian – Phonetic” layout. You’ll be surprised.
I use a phonetic layout on my Mac. Is this what you are referring to or is it something else?
Learning words is the biggest task but here’s a much bigger task for 2 languages – Chinese and Japanese. A task 99% of learners never finish in their lifetimes. The biggest taboo ever.
When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.
I agree with you in some aspects, but sometimes people use certain words in the wrong context and in those cases a dictionary definition comes in very handy, since it teaches you the meaning of the word. What you are talking about is that the meaning of a word changes over longer periods of time.
You’re totally right. A dictionary have to show the current state of a language but not to set anything. That’s a big problem of Spanish language. The RAE (Real Academia Española) acts like know-it-all and always try yo impose its views.
I’ve always loved dictionaries just I’ve always loved encyclopedias
However, only after I became serious about learning languages I realized, as you say, that they’re not that helpful for learning words.
I now use dictionaries mostly for the languages in which I’m already fairly fluent when I want more information about a particular word, say etimology or pronunciation. Only a few dictionaries provide that kind of information (OED, Le Petit Robert). Most are really just useless wordlists.
Have you heard of the GOLD LIST METHOD Steve, its on you tube a guy who calls himself uncle davey, if not check it out,
What do people think of these new but very expensive electronic dictionaries , I saw one recently that when you talk into it it translates your speech out loud into another language , crazy price though 800euro.
Hypocrisy is to do something yourself while you raise a moral objection to others doing it. What’s so hard about that?
I can’t agree more. The words in the brains of natives are the real dictionaries. Dictionaries are basic approximations of the living language’s words. We are the masters not the dictionary.
La methode LingQ va bien pour laisser moi aquérir de nouveaux mots. Donc je suis tres conente de pouvoir l’utiliser. Mais quand-meme j’ai une collection de environ 70 dictionnaires en papier (= des livres) et je les utilise regulirerement.
I use the dictionary lo look up the pronunciation because in english pronunciation is not predictable.
Glad you mention it.
I use the gold list method sonce a month and it’s just cool, because it’s NO work at all whatsoever.
Also, learning to longterm memory is guaranteed.
Everyone should give it a try. Vocab is the easiest part of learning a language!
I agree that it is very ineficient, if not a complete waste of time, to learn singled out words from a dictionary. I know that from my own experience. The best way is to see words in diferent and meaningful contexts. Eventually, you will get the “true” meaning of those words with time.
I like that, thinking of dictionary definitions as “hints.”
@u2bealot Are there people who learn a foreign language by reading a bilingual dictionary?
Hello, Steve, I suppose you are talking about bilingual dictionaries. Indeed one doesn’t learn a foreign language by reading a bilingual dictionary, but they are very useful because they save users a lot of time. Looking for occurrences with Google is a very good piece of advice. I have been using this methods for years.