The Art of Vocabulary Building
On occasion I write about languages, how to boost the level of knowledge in a language, and my own experiences in learning English language. After computer science and mathematics, learning a new language is one of main interests mostly because it opens new doors in front of me.
A common part of any language is the variety of vocabularies that are used in that language, and almost all the spoken languages have a huge number of words that can be used. Some words are archaic now, while some other words are still used. That being said, a majority of words that are being used are not very common, and we only use a limited set of words in daily conversations and writings.
Whether you’re a native speaker in a language or someone who uses it as his secondary language, your level of knowledge in vocabularies in that specific language is a vital part of your success in it. You would agree that learning the grammar and common words is something easy to achieve with training in the long time but correct use of prepositions, pronunciation of words, and more importantly the proper use of a word for a circumstance make another aspect of the story that is not easy to achieve, and it somehow differentiates the level of knowledge in that language between two speakers.
But here I want to focus on the proper use of vocabulary and also the importance of learning more vocabularies in your language. One of the easiest ways to recognize a good academic writing is the usage of vocabularies in that writing, and similarly a simple way to recognize an educated people is the way that he speaks and uses vocabulary.
Many people use a limited set of words in their daily conversations and writings but when it comes to special cases, there are some words that someone even a native speaker of a language with a degree in its literature doesn’t know about at all. It’s interesting to now that the number of such words is more than the number of known words to the public.
If you know more words with their exact meaning and use them correctly, then most likely you’re going to allure more and more audience, and write great passages, and speak in a very fascinating way. Verbal reasoning and understanding is a vital part of the success for any person in his life but it may not be very clear for ordinary people. A good education system is a system that can train students to have a wider knowledge in vocabulary and their correct usage.
Besides, in some languages there are many words with the close meanings that may be translated to a same word in other languages, and it can make it difficult for foreign speakers to use them appropriately. For example, difficult, hard, arduous, laborious, and strenuous all can be grouped in the same family along many other words or beautiful, nice, attractive, handsome, gorgeous, elegant, and lovely can have a close meaning, too. Words in each group have the same meaning in Persian but they’re slightly different and should be used for their own place. Another common example is the difference between would, have to, should, and must which is ambiguous for many foreign speakers at first glance.
Therefore, it’s an advantage for anyone to learn more and more vocabulary with their exact meaning to be able to use them appropriately. Obviously a writing can be interesting for a reader when writer has used different words in a careful manner, and doubtlessly it can help the reader to learn it better.
Recently I ran into a situation where I had to learn many of these uncommon words in English and I’m still learning them. This experience has been a very good one that would help me in the future as well. As you may have noticed, I tried to use more distinct words in my writings in the past few months as much as I felt that those words are easier to understand for the regular reader especially non-English speakers.
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3 Comments : 10.30.08
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@Mahdi
It's not a problem, actually. It's a skill that can be attained and the only solution is training. Learning new vocabulary is only possible with training in long time and trying to use the learned words in practice such as writing or reading.
@Keyvan
Of course! I meant some special resources, courses (In Tehran) and study points (may be!)
#1
Mahdi Taghizadeh
10.31.2008 @ 2:21 PM
You've outlined the problem but didn't write anything about your own solution! It may be a big request but can you clarify and explain your own experiences in more details to become a practical guide for someone like me?