What I read
According to BBC Radio 4's More or Less programme "How many words do you need to speak a language?" (as cited in Sagar-Fenton & McNeill, 2018), many people who have studied a foreign language in their homeland find it very hard to learn more than 2,000 words, even though they have studied for years. These is because people can remember only frequently used words. A professor of applied linguistics suggests that to learn a second language, we just have to learn 800 to 1,000 word families that appears often. These 800 words would make you understand 75% of usual spoken language, which is enough. However, if you would like to understand a film, you need to know around 3,000 word families, while more than 8,000 are needed to understand well written articles such as BBC News.
___________________________________
My response
I once had a conversation with a Mexican girl. She said her language is about feeling as there are many choices of word telling different feelings in Spanish. However, English is more descriptive that she cannot choose the exact word to convey her feeling but has to use adjectives to describe it.
One interesting aspect toward words in a topic in languages is that there are so many words about walking; for example, walk, meander, ramble, stagger, stride, and many more. This tells that walking is big part of English or American's lives. But in Thai language, we don't have as many words about walking, but we do have plenty about eating; for instance, กิน, ทาน, บริโภค, เขมือบ, สวาปาม, ฉัน, เสวย, or many other not-so-nice words.
Therefore, I think it would be hard to try to tell something with extremely limited words. Moreover, what comes out will not be as accurate as using a more complicated word.
I find it challenging so I encourage you to try testing yourself using common 1,000 words here http://splasho.com/upgoer5/.
___________________________________
My question
Is it better to have a language which has only simple words? Why?
___________________________________
Reference
- Sagar-Fenton, B., & McNeill, L. (2018, June 24). How many words do you need to speak a language? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44569277
Thank you Eiw. That went very well with my morning coffee. And of course, regular reading of a wide range of texts, which is one reason we blog the news here, and regular writing to use them, which is another reason we blog here, are both important to solve the limits on learning vocabulary that exist "because people can remember only frequently used words." We need to be seeing and using the words regularly if we want to learn them.
ReplyDeleteAnd the research is clear: ten minutes of deliberate practice or study six days a week is much more effective for learning than a two hour marathon once a week. This is also the reason I've started posting the Quizlet vocabulary sets: they let you test yourself with deliberate practice in very short bursts, which I hope might even be fun.
In the meantime, ten minutes blog writing stints with my morning and afternoon coffees work well for me. When I'm doing more serious reading, such the book I'm enjoying this week on political science by two Harvard academics, How Democracies Die, I have to concentrate more than drinking coffee allows: the research is also clear that multi-tasking, except where one task is truly mindless, is not something that human brains can do at all well.
And I like to enjoy my coffee, so it can't be drunk entirely mindlessly. But sipping in between quick blog comments is OK. (sip = one of the English verbs in the eating and drinking group of activities for which you gave us a few Thai examples).
DeleteI really enjoy using different Thai words to express my feelings so I would be sad if languages have only simple words. However, I totally understand the struggle of learning new words in a second language. It's really hard to remember those when you rarely use them.
ReplyDeleteThe good part of having word variety is that it can help you express your thought more precisely. In the contrary, it does cause a problem when you translate one language to another. You can't always convey a hundred percent of the original meaning. I believe, this happens because language always comes with the cultural contexts. Different cultures care about different things.
As you gave example about a set of words describing how to eat in Thai, we have a lot. Do you think this is because Thais really care about eating? Could it be that Thais have strong social hierarchy so we have levels of language?
I think, a variety of words is a beauty of language. With different levels and expressions of word, we can convey the messages and express our feelings more accurately and specifically. For me, I prefer to have many different words than just simple words because it is fun and challenging to learn new words and new language. Moreover, it could be a bit boring if every language has only simple words. "Knowledge is endless to learn"
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with the news said that we just have to learn 800 to 1,000 word is enough to use in daily life. If I stay my country, maybe I will think is true. But now, I think this number is too small. Because I will meet different condition per day, such as shopping, asking, Solving problem and so on. I need to learn much more vocabulary to understand others better.
ReplyDeleteI also think different language use different mode of thinking, we don’t find the same word to explain our feelings in different language, but maybe have another way to say.
DeleteI agree with you that using different language makes us think differently. The way native people speak also shape how we speak the language. I have also heard that people's characteristic will be different when they speak a second language which I also find it true by my own experience
DeleteI think that the language deserves for having many words in order to communicate appropriately more. In our daily lives, words express various emotion and manner also. The complex word is an optional using in case you are in special events such as interviewing, this job require the professional qualification. On the contrary, if you are a foreinger, the native do not expect you to be perfect. So I agree more option to choose that word is quite useful than another one.
ReplyDelete