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English LingQ Podcast 1.0, #299 Steve and Alex - Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 1)

#299 Steve and Alex - Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 1)

Steve: Hi Alex.

Alex: Good afternoon Steve.

Steve: So, here we are. It's a sunny day in Vancouver, which has come as a bit of a surprise because we've had so much rain the last month.

Alex: We have, absolutely.

Steve: But you know, historically, I notice that the rainiest months here are November and January and that, historically, February is actually drier than March.

Alex: Oh, really?

Steve: Yeah, I saw that. So we may have a dry month here and then March it will rain again.

Alex: Oh, okay.

Steve: You know one subject that I think is of interest to people who study languages, and I mentioned it in my recent YouTube video, is this whole question of vocabulary and passive versus active. In other words, passive vocabulary obviously means words that you can recognize, but you can't use. Well, you may be able to use them, but not necessarily. Active vocabulary are words that you use every day when you're speaking in the language.

So, I was surprised at the number of people who when they learn a word, they feel like they want to learn it until they can use it, which in my experience is actually very difficult to do. You can look at this list of words over and over again, you may even use it, but the words seem to get learned when they want to be learned. I mean, yeah, obviously if you use it and see it more often you're more likely to learn it, but it seems to beyond our control and yet some things, you might learn the word for ‘umbrella' or something, and for some reason that word sticks. Or the word for some abstract concept like ‘abstract', the word ‘abstract' in a foreign language, that might stick, but the word for a plate that you eat off every day, that won't stick. Alex: Yeah.

Steve: I don't know. What's been your experience with Korean? And, of course, with Korean it's difficult to learn vocabulary because there's very little common vocabulary with European languages and with English and, of course, you're dealing with another writing system, which always makes it more difficult.

Alex: I know.

Steve: I don't care how familiar you are with that non-familiar writing system; it's another level of strain, another level of difficulty. So what's been your experience with learning vocabulary in Korean?

Alex: I'll say to start off with, a different script. I had a friend in university, she was in her fourth year, she was Korean, from Korea, but she had moved to Canada about 10 years before. So I asked her one day. She was reading a research paper or something like that in English and I said “What is your English level compared to your Korean level as far as reading goes?” She says “Well, I would say probably my English is about the same now; like I'm able to read English as easily now as I am able to read Korean.” She was like 24 and had been in Canada for 10 years attending school, high school, everything, university for four years and it took her that long until she said “Well, they're probably about the same.”

Steve: Yeah. I mean I'm not surprised. Even with the same script, I would say that. Even though I studied in France for three years and I'm quite comfortable in French, it's easier to read in English. You end up doing a little more sub-vocalizing, but that's even in the same script.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: And I must say that I am finding Czech much easier than Russian because it's in the same writing system. These are all things that just…it's like running with weights. You know what I mean? It's just stuff that weights you down, that makes it less efficient. It's sand in the gears, you know? But leaving that aside, yeah, how do you find learning vocabulary in Korean?

Alex: One thing that's really interesting that came to mind as you were actually mentioning that earlier is for me there are some really difficult words that as soon as I heard them they stuck.

Steve: Right.

Alex: There is one that's... I guess the best way to put it is like ‘legendary' or, in a sense… I don't even know how to describe it that well in English, but I know the word in Korean. Steve: Right.

Alex: And I saw the word once and it stuck.

Steve: Right.

Alex: And I don't think I've ever used the word and I've barely seen the word. I've maybe seen it once or twice since then.

Steve: Right.

Alex: It's not a very common word, but I know the word.

Steve: Right.

Alex: And at the same time the word for ‘teapot' was a word that took me forever to get down, forever. Steve: And don't you find things like colors are difficult to remember? Colors are remarkably difficult to remember and numbers.

Alex: I still don't know some of the colors.

Steve: Colors and numbers and parts of the body and these are very often the first things that are introduced – colors. Colors are very difficult to remember. I'm not sure why. I think the things that we use all the time are so hardwired in our own language that it's very difficult to get our brains to say no, that green, actually, it's this other word; whereas, words that we don't use so often, yeah, it can be this word, it can be that word. You know I don't know. I'm not a neuroscientist, but I mean, obviously, it seems that a lot of the…

And the other interesting thing is that in a lot of languages the way you say very basic things like ‘My name is', ‘How old are you?' What's the time?' that the very structure of these is actually quite different. They tend to be quite, you know, idiosyncratic, right, quite peculiar to that language and therefore they're very difficult to learn; whereas, if you're reading something more formal, if you're reading a news item or something.

But, anyway, we're straying a bit from the subject. In English, for example, what would you say is the ratio between your passive vocabulary that enables you to read a whole bunch of stuff and the vocabulary that you actually use in English, just a guess?

Alex: Yeah.

I mean I would say for myself, I typically don't use a lot of big words in everyday conversation. So when I was in university and I was reading these various different books and essays written I could understand them, but it's not at all how I would talk.

Steve: Okay, but if you were to write a paper on the subject you would use them.

Alex: That's the thing though. I mean maybe I would, but I probably would kind of like think ah, maybe use a thesaurus to find a more academic word for it. They're definitely words that I know but, as you say, they're not words that I naturally would use in a conversation.

Steve: Because you're not so confident using them.

Alex: Exactly.

Steve: And you're not experienced using them.

Alex: So probably as far as the ratio goes, I would say three to one.

Steve: Yeah, and what about in Korean?

Alex: Korean… This is funny, because this is something that in my Korean studies has come up more recently where I'm doing a lot more reading and a lot more listening and understanding more and more and then when I sit down with a friend to discuss something I find myself just hunting and searching for these words that I've heard 50 times and I'm still not quite sure if that's the right word.

Steve: Right.

Alex: So, easily, eight, ten, fifteen to one probably.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I mean I find the same and, obviously, the better I speak a language; like probably French is where I would be closest. I study there. I mean I was writing term papers and stuff in French. Japanese and Mandarin I'm quite fluent, but the ratio of words I have… It's just practical if you can get by with fewer words.

And, of course, I have no obligation in Japanese to write. I have never written term papers in Japanese. I don't write essays in Japanese. I just use it to talk about business, to talk with friends over a beer. I mean I have very specific applications; to discuss politics, to discuss economics. So it's more practical to rely on those words that you are sure of, words and phrases that you know what they mean, you know they work.

It's all about this credibility, right? Some of these other words you're not entirely sure. And it's not only what the words mean. It's, as we know, this term ‘collocation', right, which words are normally used with which other words in which context. And the minute you feel not totally sure, you back away from using that word and you'll go with a word that you know works, right?

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: So I agree with you. I think that in English it's probably three to one and if I'm writing a formal essay on something I'll probably use words, again, that I'm comfortable using and in these other languages it's ten to one. Now that I'm just starting to speak in Czech, I mean I know a lot of words in Czech. Like I just downloaded a whole series of podcasts on history; wonderful, spoken slowly, clearly, so well done. Unfortunately, there's no transcript, but I know a lot of what they're talking about, lots.

When I go to speak and now I'm starting to speak, I've spoken maybe five or six times, I mean my usable vocabulary is very small, very small, and it will gradually improve. So, obviously, the more you speak, the more you experiment, the more comfortable you become. So, to my mind, it's normal that it should be that much larger. I'm quite comfortable in Japanese and Mandarin and Spanish and Swedish and yet the ratio of passive to active is like ten to one. It doesn't bother me. Some people get very upset. They learn 10 words today; they want to be able to use 10 words today.

The response to my video was from a number of people who sort of suggested that “Yeah, you say you know all these words; well, in fact, you don't.” One of them said “Until you can use them at-will.” And I was saying I think if you put the effort into it you can learn 100 words a day, on average. Not in a one-week period, but over say six months because the words start to accumulate almost by magic.

Incidentally, if you do enough reading and listening all of a sudden they start to stick. You look back and say oh, I've been at it for six months and I know all these words. Maybe it's 50, maybe it's 100 words a day, depending on how many hours you put in and this guy said “No. No way I could learn even 10 a day, because to me to know a word you've got to be able to use it at-will.” I just felt that was an unrealistic expectation, which can only slow you down in your learning.

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#299 Steve and Alex - Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 1) #Nr. 299 Steve und Alex - Passiver und aktiver Wortschatz (Teil 1) #299 Steve y Alex - Vocabulario pasivo frente a activo (1ª parte) #299 Steve et Alex - Vocabulaire passif et actif (1ère partie) #299 Steve e Alex - Vocabolario passivo e attivo (Parte 1) #299 スティーブとアレックス - 受動態と能動態の語彙(前編) #299 스티브와 알렉스 - 수동태와 능동태 어휘 (1부) #299 Steve i Alex - Słownictwo pasywne vs. aktywne (część 1) #299 Steve e Alex - Vocabulário passivo vs. ativo (Parte 1) #299 Стив и Алекс - Пассивная и активная лексика (часть 1) #299 Steve ve Alex - Pasif ve Aktif Kelime Bilgisi (Bölüm 1) #299 Стів та Алекс - Пасивна та активна лексика (частина 1) #299 Steve 和 Alex - 被動詞彙與主動詞彙(第 1 部分)

Steve:    Hi Alex.

Alex:    Good afternoon Steve.

Steve:    So, here we are. It’s a sunny day in Vancouver, which has come as a bit of a surprise because we’ve had so much rain the last month. ||||||||przyszedł|jako|to||||niespodzianka|||||dużo||||

Alex:    We have, absolutely. Alex: Das haben wir, absolut.

Steve:    But you know, historically, I notice that the rainiest months here are November and January and that, historically, February is actually drier than March. |||||||||بارانی‌ترین|||||||||||||خشک‌تر|| |||||||||le plus pluvieux|||||||||||||plus sec||

Alex:    Oh, really?

Steve:    Yeah, I saw that. Steve: Ja, das habe ich gesehen. So we may have a dry month here and then March it will rain again. |||||||tutaj||||||| Es kann also sein, dass wir hier einen trockenen Monat haben und es dann im März wieder regnet.

Alex:    Oh, okay.

Steve:    You know one subject that I think is of interest to people who study languages, and I mentioned it in my recent YouTube video, is this whole question of vocabulary and passive versus active. Steve: Wissen Sie, ein Thema, das meiner Meinung nach für Leute, die Sprachen studieren, von Interesse ist, und das ich in meinem jüngsten YouTube-Video erwähnt habe, ist diese ganze Frage des Wortschatzes und des Passivs gegenüber dem Aktiv. In other words, passive vocabulary obviously means words that you can recognize, but you can’t use. Well, you may be able to use them, but not necessarily. Active vocabulary are words that you use every day when you’re speaking in the language.

So, I was surprised at the number of people who when they learn a word, they feel like they want to learn it until they can use it, which in my experience is actually very difficult to do. Ich war überrascht, wie viele Menschen, wenn sie ein Wort lernen, das Gefühl haben, dass sie es so lange lernen wollen, bis sie es benutzen können, was meiner Erfahrung nach sehr schwierig zu erreichen ist. Sono rimasto sorpreso dal numero di persone che, quando imparano una parola, pensano di volerla imparare fino a poterla usare, cosa che nella mia esperienza è molto difficile da fare. You can look at this list of words over and over again, you may even use it, but the words seem to get learned when they want to be learned. Sie können sich diese Liste von Wörtern immer wieder ansehen, sie vielleicht sogar benutzen, aber die Wörter scheinen gelernt zu werden, wenn sie gelernt werden wollen. I mean, yeah, obviously if you use it and see it more often you’re more likely to learn it, but it seems to beyond our control and yet some things, you might learn the word for ‘umbrella' or something, and for some reason that word sticks. Ich meine, ja, natürlich, wenn man es häufiger benutzt und sieht, lernt man es eher, aber es scheint sich unserer Kontrolle zu entziehen, und doch gibt es Dinge, wie z. B. das Wort für "Regenschirm", das man lernt, und aus irgendeinem Grund bleibt dieses Wort haften. Or the word for some abstract concept like ‘abstract', the word ‘abstract' in a foreign language, that might stick, but the word for a plate that you eat off every day, that won’t stick. ||||||||||||||||||grudar||||||prato|||||||||grudar Oder das Wort für ein abstraktes Konzept wie "abstrakt", das Wort "abstrakt" in einer Fremdsprache, das bleibt vielleicht hängen, aber das Wort für einen Teller, von dem man jeden Tag isst, das bleibt nicht hängen. O la palabra para un concepto abstracto como "abstracto", la palabra "abstracto" en un idioma extranjero, puede que se pegue, pero la palabra para un plato en el que comes todos los días, no se pegará. Alex:    Yeah.

Steve:    I don’t know. What’s been your experience with Korean? Welche Erfahrungen haben Sie mit Koreanisch gemacht? And, of course, with Korean it’s difficult to learn vocabulary because there’s very little common vocabulary with European languages and with English and, of course, you’re dealing with another writing system, which always makes it more difficult.

Alex:    I know.

Steve:    I don’t care how familiar you are with that non-familiar writing system; it’s another level of strain, another level of difficulty. ||||||||||||||||||strain|||| Steve: Es ist mir egal, wie vertraut Sie mit diesem nicht vertrauten Schriftsystem sind; es ist eine andere Ebene der Belastung, eine andere Ebene der Schwierigkeit. So what’s been your experience with learning vocabulary in Korean? Welche Erfahrungen haben Sie mit dem Lernen von Vokabeln auf Koreanisch gemacht?

Alex:    I’ll say to start off with, a different script. |||||||||roteiro Alex: Ich würde sagen, für den Anfang ein anderes Drehbuch. I had a friend in university, she was in her fourth year, she was Korean, from Korea, but she had moved to Canada about 10 years before. Ich hatte eine Freundin an der Universität, sie war im vierten Jahr, sie war Koreanerin, aus Korea, aber sie war etwa 10 Jahre zuvor nach Kanada gezogen. So I asked her one day. She was reading a research paper or something like that in English and I said “What is your English level compared to your Korean level as far as reading goes?” She says “Well, I would say probably my English is about the same now; like I’m able to read English as easily now as I am able to read Korean.” She was like 24 and had been in Canada for 10 years attending school, high school, everything, university for four years and it took her that long until she said “Well, they’re probably about the same.” Sie las ein Forschungspapier oder etwas Ähnliches auf Englisch, und ich fragte: "Wie gut sind Ihre Englischkenntnisse im Vergleich zu Ihrem koreanischen Niveau, was das Lesen betrifft?" Sie sagte: "Nun, ich würde sagen, mein Englisch ist jetzt ungefähr gleich gut; ich kann jetzt Englisch genauso gut lesen wie Koreanisch." Sie war 24 Jahre alt und war seit 10 Jahren in Kanada, hat die Schule besucht, die High School, alles, vier Jahre lang die Universität, und so lange hat sie gebraucht, bis sie sagte: "Nun, sie sind wahrscheinlich ungefähr gleich gut." Stava leggendo una ricerca o qualcosa del genere in inglese e le ho chiesto: "Qual è il tuo livello di inglese rispetto al tuo livello di coreano per quanto riguarda la lettura?". Lei mi ha risposto: "Beh, direi che probabilmente il mio inglese è più o meno lo stesso, cioè riesco a leggere l'inglese con la stessa facilità con cui leggo il coreano". Aveva circa 24 anni ed era in Canada da 10 anni, frequentava la scuola, il liceo, tutto, l'università da quattro anni e le ci è voluto tutto questo tempo per dire "Beh, probabilmente sono più o meno uguali". Она читала научную статью или что-то в этом роде на английском языке, и я спросил: "Каков ваш уровень английского языка по сравнению с уровнем корейского языка в плане чтения?" Она говорит: "Ну, я бы сказала, что, наверное, мой уровень английского сейчас примерно одинаков; я могу читать по-английски так же легко, как и по-корейски". Ей было 24 года, она прожила в Канаде 10 лет, посещала школу, старшую школу, все остальное, четыре года училась в университете, и прошло столько времени, прежде чем она сказала: "Ну, наверное, они примерно одинаковы".

Steve:    Yeah. I mean I’m not surprised. Even with the same script, I would say that. 同じスクリプトでもそうだと思います。 Even though I studied in France for three years and I’m quite comfortable in French, it’s easier to read in English. Obwohl ich drei Jahre lang in Frankreich studiert habe und mich in der französischen Sprache recht gut auskenne, ist es einfacher, auf Englisch zu lesen. You end up doing a little more sub-vocalizing, but that’s even in the same script. ||||||||زیرلب خوانی||||||| Am Ende macht man ein bisschen mehr Subvokalisation, aber das ist sogar im gleichen Skript.

Alex:    Yeah.

Steve:    And I must say that I am finding Czech much easier than Russian because it’s in the same writing system. These are all things that just…it’s like running with weights. Das sind alles Dinge, die einfach... es ist wie Laufen mit Gewichten. これらはすべて、ウェイトを使って走るようなものです。 You know what I mean? It’s just stuff that weights you down, that makes it less efficient. ||||||||fa||| ||||||obciąża||||| Es sind nur Dinge, die einen beschweren, die die Effizienz mindern. Son cosas que te lastran, que te hacen menos eficiente. To tylko rzeczy, które cię obciążają, które sprawiają, że to mniej efektywne. It’s sand in the gears, you know? ||||rouages|| |obstacle|||mechanical components' workings|| ||||zębatki|| ||||os engrenagens|| Das ist wie Sand im Getriebe, weißt du? Es arena en los engranajes, ¿sabes? ギアの中の砂ですよね? To jak piasek w zębatkach, wiesz? Песок в шестернях, понимаете? But leaving that aside, yeah, how do you find learning vocabulary in Korean? Ale pomijając to, jak oceniasz naukę słownictwa po koreańsku?

Alex:    One thing that’s really interesting that came to mind as you were actually mentioning that earlier is for me there are some really difficult words that as soon as I heard them they stuck. ||||||||||jako|||||||||||||||||||||||| Alex: Eine wirklich interessante Sache, die mir in den Sinn kam, als du das vorhin erwähnt hast, ist, dass es für mich einige wirklich schwierige Wörter gibt, die, sobald ich sie gehört habe, hängen geblieben sind. アレックス:あなたが実際に以前に言っていたときに頭に浮かんだ本当に興味深いことの1つは、私にとっては本当に難しい言葉がいくつかあることです。

Steve:    Right.

Alex:    There is one that’s... I guess the best way to put it is like ‘legendary' or, in a sense… I don’t even know how to describe it that well in English, but I know the word in Korean. |||||||||||||||legendary||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||legendarne||||||||||||||||||||||| Alex: Es gibt eine, die ist... Ich denke, man kann es am besten mit "legendär" beschreiben, oder, in gewissem Sinne... Ich weiß nicht einmal, wie man es so gut auf Englisch beschreiben kann, aber ich kenne das Wort auf Koreanisch. アレックス:あるものがあります...それを表現する最良の方法は「伝説的」のようなものだと思いますまたはある意味で...英語でそれをうまく説明する方法すら知りませんが、韓国語で単語を知っています。 Steve:    Right.

Alex:    And I saw the word once and it stuck. Alex: Und ich habe das Wort einmal gesehen und es ist hängen geblieben.

Steve:    Right.

Alex:    And I don’t think I’ve ever used the word and I’ve barely seen the word. ||||||||||||malmente||| アレックス:そして、私はその言葉を使ったことがないと思います、そして私はその言葉をほとんど見たことがありません。 I’ve maybe seen it once or twice since then. Seitdem habe ich ihn vielleicht ein- oder zweimal gesehen.

Steve:    Right.

Alex:    It’s not a very common word, but I know the word.

Steve:    Right.

Alex:    And at the same time the word for ‘teapot' was a word that took me forever to get down, forever. |||||||||czajnik|||||||||||wieczność Alex: Und gleichzeitig war das Wort für "Teekanne" ein Wort, bei dem ich ewig brauchte, um es zu verstehen. Steve:    And don’t you find things like colors are difficult to remember? Steve: Und finden Sie nicht auch, dass es schwierig ist, sich Dinge wie Farben zu merken? Colors are remarkably difficult to remember and numbers. ||niesamowicie||||| Farben sind erstaunlich schwer zu merken, ebenso wie Zahlen.

Alex:    I still don’t know some of the colors.

Steve:    Colors and numbers and parts of the body and these are very often the first things that are introduced – colors. Steve: Farben und Zahlen und Körperteile, und das sind sehr oft die ersten Dinge, die eingeführt werden - Farben. Colors are very difficult to remember. I’m not sure why. I think the things that we use all the time are so hardwired in our own language that it’s very difficult to get our brains to say no, that green, actually, it’s this other word; whereas, words that we don’t use so often, yeah, it can be this word, it can be that word. ||||||||||||wbudowane||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||incutidos|||||||||||||||||||||||enquanto que|||||||||||||||||| Ich denke, dass die Dinge, die wir ständig benutzen, so fest in unserer Sprache verankert sind, dass es sehr schwierig ist, unser Gehirn dazu zu bringen, zu sagen: Nein, dieses Grün, das ist eigentlich dieses andere Wort; wohingegen Wörter, die wir nicht so oft benutzen, ja, es kann dieses Wort sein, es kann jenes Wort sein. You know I don’t know. I’m not a neuroscientist, but I mean, obviously, it seems that a lot of the… |||neurobiolog||||||||||| Ich bin kein Neurowissenschaftler, aber ich meine, es scheint, dass ein Großteil der...

And the other interesting thing is that in a lot of languages the way you say very basic things like ‘My name is', ‘How old are you?' Interessant ist auch, dass in vielen Sprachen die Art und Weise, wie man ganz einfache Dinge sagt, wie "Mein Name ist", "Wie alt bist du? What’s the time?' that the very structure of these is actually quite different. dass diese in ihrer Struktur eigentlich ganz anders sind. They tend to be quite, you know, idiosyncratic, right, quite peculiar to that language and therefore they’re very difficult to learn; whereas, if you’re reading something more formal, if you’re reading a news item or something. |||||||idiosyncratique|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||idiosyncratic|||peculiar||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||eigenwillig|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||منحصربه‌فرد|||عجیب و غریب||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||idiosincráticas|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||dziwaczny|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Sie neigen dazu, recht eigenwillig zu sein und sind daher sehr schwer zu erlernen. Wenn man dagegen etwas Formelleres liest, z. B. eine Nachricht oder etwas Ähnliches, ist das sehr schwierig.

But, anyway, we’re straying a bit from the subject. |||منحرف شدن||||| |||zboczenie||||| ||estamos|||||| Aber wir kommen hier ein wenig vom Thema ab. In English, for example, what would you say is the ratio between your passive vocabulary that enables you to read a whole bunch of stuff and the vocabulary that you actually use in English, just a guess? Wie groß ist Ihrer Meinung nach das Verhältnis zwischen Ihrem passiven Wortschatz, der es Ihnen ermöglicht, eine ganze Reihe von Texten zu lesen, und dem Wortschatz, den Sie tatsächlich in der englischen Sprache verwenden (nur eine Schätzung)?

Alex:    Yeah.

I mean I would say for myself, I typically don’t use a lot of big words in everyday conversation. So when I was in university and I was reading these various different books and essays written I could understand them, but it’s not at all how I would talk. |||||||||||||||ensaios|||||||||||||| Als ich an der Universität war und diese verschiedenen Bücher und Aufsätze las, konnte ich sie zwar verstehen, aber so würde ich überhaupt nicht reden.

Steve:    Okay, but if you were to write a paper on the subject you would use them. Steve: Okay, aber wenn Sie eine Arbeit über dieses Thema schreiben würden, würden Sie sie verwenden.

Alex:    That’s the thing though. Alex: Das ist ja das Problem. Alex: Esa es la cosa, sin embargo. I mean maybe I would, but I probably would kind of like think ah, maybe use a thesaurus to find a more academic word for it. |||||||||||||||||واژه‌نامه مترادف‌ها|||||||| |||||||||||||||||Wörterbuch|||||||| |||||||||||||||||tezaurus|||||||| |||||||||||||||||sinónimos|||||||| Quiero decir, tal vez lo haría, pero probablemente pensaría ah, tal vez usar un tesauro para encontrar una palabra más académica para eso. They’re definitely words that I know but, as you say, they’re not words that I naturally would use in a conversation. Es sind auf jeden Fall Wörter, die ich kenne, aber, wie Sie sagen, sind es keine Wörter, die ich von Natur aus in einem Gespräch verwenden würde. Definitivamente son palabras que conozco, pero, como dices, no son palabras que naturalmente usaría en una conversación.

Steve:    Because you’re not so confident using them.

Alex:    Exactly.

Steve:    And you’re not experienced using them. Steve: Und Sie haben keine Erfahrung mit ihnen.

Alex:    So probably as far as the ratio goes, I would say three to one. Alex: Also, was das Verhältnis angeht, würde ich sagen, drei zu eins. Alex: Probabilmente il rapporto è di tre a uno.

Steve:    Yeah, and what about in Korean?

Alex:    Korean… This is funny, because this is something that in my Korean studies has come up more recently where I’m doing a lot more reading and a lot more listening and understanding more and more and then when I sit down with a friend to discuss something I find myself just hunting and searching for these words that I’ve heard 50 times and I’m still not quite sure if that’s the right word. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||شکار کردن|||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||procurando|||||||||||||||||||| Alex: Koreanisch... Das ist lustig, denn das ist etwas, das in meinen Koreanischstudien in letzter Zeit immer häufiger vorkommt, wo ich viel mehr lese und viel mehr zuhöre und immer mehr verstehe, und dann, wenn ich mich mit einem Freund hinsetze, um etwas zu besprechen, ertappe ich mich dabei, wie ich nach diesen Wörtern suche, die ich schon 50 Mal gehört habe und mir immer noch nicht ganz sicher bin, ob das das richtige Wort ist.

Steve:    Right.

Alex:    So, easily, eight, ten, fifteen to one probably.

Steve:    Yeah. Well, I mean I find the same and, obviously, the better I speak a language; like probably French is where I would be closest. Nun, ich meine, ich finde, es ist dasselbe, und je besser ich eine Sprache spreche, desto besser ist sie natürlich; am ehesten würde ich wohl Französisch sprechen. I study there. Ich studiere dort. I mean I was writing term papers and stuff in French. Japanese and Mandarin I’m quite fluent, but the ratio of words I have… It’s just practical if you can get by with fewer words. |||||||||||||||||tú||get by||||palabras que uso

And, of course, I have no obligation in Japanese to write. ||||||obowiązek|||| そしてもちろん、私は日本語で書く義務はありません。 I have never written term papers in Japanese. Nunca he escrito trabajos trimestrales en japonés. I don’t write essays in Japanese. I just use it to talk about business, to talk with friends over a beer. ||||||||||||przy|| I mean I have very specific applications; to discuss politics, to discuss economics. ||||||||||||ekonomii So it’s more practical to rely on those words that you are sure of, words and phrases that you know what they mean, you know they work. |||||confiar|||||||||||||||||||||

It’s all about this credibility, right? それはすべてこの信頼性についてですよね? Some of these other words you’re not entirely sure. あなたが完全に確信していないこれらの他の言葉のいくつか。 And it’s not only what the words mean. Und es geht nicht nur darum, was die Worte bedeuten. It’s, as we know, this term ‘collocation', right, which words are normally used with which other words in which context. ||||||collocation||||||||||||| ||||||kolokacja||||||||||||| Es geht, wie wir wissen, um den Begriff "Kollokation", also darum, welche Wörter normalerweise mit welchen anderen Wörtern in welchem Zusammenhang verwendet werden. And the minute you feel not totally sure, you back away from using that word and you’ll go with a word that you know works, right? Und in dem Moment, in dem Sie sich nicht ganz sicher sind, nehmen Sie von diesem Wort Abstand und verwenden ein Wort, von dem Sie wissen, dass es funktioniert, richtig? そして、あなたが完全に確信が持てないと感じた瞬間、あなたはその単語を使うのをやめ、あなたがうまくいくと知っている単語を使うでしょう?

Alex:    Yeah.

Steve:    So I agree with you. I think that in English it’s probably three to one and if I’m writing a formal essay on something I’ll probably use words, again, that I’m comfortable using and in these other languages it’s ten to one. Ich denke, im Englischen ist es wahrscheinlich drei zu eins, und wenn ich einen formellen Aufsatz über etwas schreibe, werde ich wahrscheinlich wieder Wörter verwenden, mit denen ich vertraut bin, und in diesen anderen Sprachen ist es zehn zu eins. 英語ではおそらく3対1だと思います。私が何かについて正式なエッセイを書いている場合は、おそらく言葉を使用しますが、これらの他の言語では10対1です。 Now that I’m just starting to speak in Czech, I mean I know a lot of words in Czech. Like I just downloaded a whole series of podcasts on history; wonderful, spoken slowly, clearly, so well done. Ich habe gerade eine ganze Reihe von Podcasts über Geschichte heruntergeladen; wunderbar, langsam und deutlich gesprochen, so gut gemacht. Unfortunately, there’s no transcript, but I know a lot of what they’re talking about, lots.

When I go to speak and now I’m starting to speak, I’ve spoken maybe five or six times, I mean my usable vocabulary is very small, very small, and it will gradually improve. |||||||||||||||||||||użyteczny||||||||||| Wenn ich spreche, und jetzt fange ich an zu sprechen, habe ich vielleicht fünf oder sechs Mal gesprochen, ich meine, mein nutzbarer Wortschatz ist sehr klein, sehr klein, und er wird sich allmählich verbessern. So, obviously, the more you speak, the more you experiment, the more comfortable you become. So, to my mind, it’s normal that it should be that much larger. |||moim zdaniem||||||||| I’m quite comfortable in Japanese and Mandarin and Spanish and Swedish and yet the ratio of passive to active is like ten to one. 私は日本語と北京語、スペイン語とスウェーデン語でとても快適ですが、パッシブとアクティブの比率は10対1のようです。 It doesn’t bother me. Some people get very upset. They learn 10 words today; they want to be able to use 10 words today.

The response to my video was from a number of people who sort of suggested that “Yeah, you say you know all these words; well, in fact, you don’t.” One of them said “Until you can use them at-will.” And I was saying I think if you put the effort into it you can learn 100 words a day, on average. Auf mein Video reagierten einige Leute mit den Worten: "Ja, du sagst, du kennst all diese Wörter, aber in Wirklichkeit kennst du sie nicht." Einer von ihnen sagte: "Bis du sie nach Belieben verwenden kannst." Und ich habe gesagt, dass man im Durchschnitt 100 Wörter pro Tag lernen kann, wenn man sich Mühe gibt. 私のビデオへの反応は、「ええ、あなたはこれらすべての言葉を知っていると言います。ええと、実際、あなたはそうしません。」そのうちの一人は「自由に使えるまで」と言っていました。それに力を入れれば、平均して1日100語学習できると思います。 Not in a one-week period, but over say six months because the words start to accumulate almost by magic. |||||دوره زمانی|||||||||||||| Nicht innerhalb einer Woche, sondern über einen Zeitraum von etwa sechs Monaten, weil sich die Wörter wie von Zauberhand anhäufen.

Incidentally, if you do enough reading and listening all of a sudden they start to stick. You look back and say oh, I’ve been at it for six months and I know all these words. Man blickt zurück und sagt sich: Oh, ich habe sechs Monate lang gelernt, und ich kenne all diese Wörter. Maybe it’s 50, maybe it’s 100 words a day, depending on how many hours you put in and this guy said “No. Vielleicht sind es 50, vielleicht auch 100 Wörter pro Tag, je nachdem, wie viele Stunden man investiert, und dieser Typ sagte: "Nein. No way I could learn even 10 a day, because to me to know a word you’ve got to be able to use it at-will.” I just felt that was an unrealistic expectation, which can only slow you down in your learning. |||||||||||||||||||||||na życzenie||||||||||||||||||