I'm a non-native speaker and I fare pretty well with reading stuff but I'm a bit chocked at my result (< 19k). The thing I find a bit funny is that of all the

I'm a non-native speaker and I fare pretty well with reading stuff but I'm a bit chocked at my result (< 19k). The thing I find a bit funny is that of all the words I didn't check I've seen almost all of them in books and articles. When I see them in a sentence and in context I do understand them fine but I can't give a definition for them. I wonder if this is common when reading another language? It might be a better idea to look up the words in a dictionary when seeing them but I just can't be bothered, after seeing them in context a few times I can usually get a feel for their meanings. There are a few exceptions to be sure, adjectives are particularly bad at this.