Enlarging one’s vocabulary#
Prompted to make haste to enlarge my vocabulary by memorizing words listed in the book Hot Words For SAT I, I decided to compose a blog post on the topic of the efficacy of different measures taken with the purpose of improving one’s vocabulary. In an attempt to ameliorate my own barbarian mind devoid of sensitivity to “advanced” vocabulary, I further resolved to complete this article with the aid of the exact same set of words. Acknowledging that this will undoubtedly make this post arcane, bombastic and pompous, I hope the arguments presented in this post will at least be less monstrous than their grammatical and linguistic formulations.
A historical perspective#
English not being my mother tongue, it took me a fair amount of time to grasp the basics of the language. Thanks to my parents’ clairvoyant disposition, I familiarized my self with English from an early age. By digging through an assortment of English books, I eventually learned to perceive articles written in the language and enabled myself to establish rudimentary conversations. Notice how contrary this is to the most widely adopted approach to learning English in China, where I grew up as a kid. Most parents took their children to extracurricular classes, and the teachers taught them what they thought to be the language of English. They transferred what they learned at school, the vocabulary and grammatical constructs to the yet feeble minds of children, teaching it as though it were a most logically self-consistent piece of machinery. You may have noticed the satire in my language, but what I’m criticizing is not the logic itself, which is essential to forming discerning arguments and delineating them either verbally or in a written form, but the lack of exposure to the aesthetic beauty of the language, without which one cannot fully master the strength of English itself. Nevertheless, the marked disparity between me and my parents’ approach to learning English and others’ caused the latter to be repugnant to me, resulting in my diatribe against my English teacher’s uncivilized attempt to pour vocabulary into students’ minds by carrying out exams in the form of matching English words to their supposedly Chinese counterparts. Retrospectively, I began to search for the best way to enlarge one’s vocabulary, which is what I’d like to discuss today.
What vocabulary is#
Vocabulary, if perceived literally, is a collection of words. Though this definition may be far from circumspect, I believe it is enough for the topic today. By enlarging on’s vocabulary we mean increasing the size of this reservoir of words, thus enhancing one’s ability to depict and describe the world around us to others. Stress must be put on the final part of my last sentence “to others”. If, for instance, one did not need to express his ideas to others in an articulate manner, vocabulary simply would not exist. Or, for the sake of accuracy, everyone’s vocabulary would be different and only meaningful to the inventor himself, which is only useful for the most self-centered (or the most altruistic, whichever you prefer). Therefore, vocabulary, in its very essence, is communication and interaction themselves.
An approach built upon communication#
Assuming that the assumption that vocabulary is closely tied to communication is generally correct, the “best” approach to enlarging one’s vocabulary should have a clear focus on communication, which, put simply, is reading, writing, speaking and listening, exactly the four skills deemed crucial by various experts and organizations in the field. Yet memorizing the definition or usage of a word is not one of them. If I further condense what I just mentioned in a colloquial manner, the best approach would be “to use the words you learned”. If, however, I elaborate this point further, my recommendation would be to write a blog post with the words you learned 😉, to read a large number articles so that the word appears regularly, to listen to podcasts, and to use the words frequently in speech.
Take the word deference as an example, the following list defines my attitude towards learning this new word:
- deference
尊重，遵从 ❌❌ interpret from another language (inaccurate)
behaviour that shows that you repsect sb/sth ❌ too abstract
Example sentence from Pride and Prejudice:
She is the sort of woman whom one cannot regard with too much deference.
✅
Compose a sentence: Without losing deference to my former English teacher, I disapprove her approach to teaching the English language. ✅
English as a second language#
If English is one’s mother tongue, all of the above will be naturally and effortlessly fulfilled. But if it is instead one’s second language, he must be persuaded into speaking the language with confidence, or even cajoled into it.
Final remarks#
I may have been a bit too didactic in my post today, and I most sincerely apologize if you find it in any way alienating. Apart from that, I myself will try the approaches I mentioned in this post first, and hopefully it will lead to a satisfying result.