4 ms·

David Moser, in his text "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard", points out that Even though you may know 95% of the [words] in a given text, the remaining 5% are often

by frooxie 15y ago

David Moser, in his text "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard", points out that Even though you may know 95% of the [words] in a given text, the remaining 5% are often the very [words] that are crucial for understanding the main point of the text. A non-native speaker of English reading an article with the headline "JACUZZIS FOUND EFFECTIVE IN TREATING PHLEBITIS" is not going to get very far if they don't know the words "jacuzzi" or "phlebitis".

wisty 15y ago
If you understand 95% of words, you can start learning with authentic material and a dictionary. Of course, Chinese is a little hard (stroke order is harder than alphabetical, and you can't guess the meaning as easily like you can with a related language like German), but ... it's still a good way to go. Of course, almost every language teacher on the planet will recommend you start with common words and pattens (grammer, phrases, etc), then learn less common stuff. It's not a revelation.
- frooxie 15y ago
  My point was that understanding a certain percentage of the words is very different from understanding the same percentage of the sentences in a book.
ajuc 15y ago
I've had similiar problem, and I've found that's not a problem at all. I was reading sci-fi book with many unknown (to me) words. Most of the time I had not bothered to check dictionary, because you could guess from the context what the missing words mean. If not right away - maybe the next time you encounter the same word. Or because you see how characters in the book reacts to our hero phaser. It's actually quite addictive - it feels like you're not only reading a story, but also solving a riddle. When I wanted to check every word, it quickly became a chore, and I've lost motivation to read further. So I recommend this way of reading foreign literature - for me it was very effective.
- DanBC 15y ago
  Your post strongly reminds me of this: (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/10/why_i_hate_star_trek.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/10/why_i_ha...) > He described how the writers would just insert "tech" into the scripts whenever they needed to resolve a story or plot line, then they'd have consultants fill in the appropriate words (aka technobabble) later. > "It became the solution to so many plot lines and so many stories," Moore said. "It was so mechanical that we had science consultants who would just come up with the words for us and we'd just write 'tech' in the script. You know, Picard would say 'Commander La Forge, tech the tech to the warp drive.' I'm serious. If you look at those scripts, you'll see that."
everyguy 15y ago
I taught myself to read Japanese and eventually work as a technical translator by starting with about a 20% understanding of the written language, but a 90% understanding of the underlying context. This made it possible to get the meaning of each passage through the keywords in that context which mapped closely to English words I already knew, and learn the connecting words and phrases through looking them up and researching how they are used. Computer dictionaries greatly increased the look-up speed.

by frooxie 15y ago

wisty 15y ago

If you understand 95% of words, you can start learning with authentic material and a dictionary. Of course, Chinese is a little hard (stroke order is harder than alphabetical, and you can't guess the meaning as easily like you can with a related language like German), but ... it's still a good way to go. Of course, almost every language teacher on the planet will recommend you start with common words and pattens (grammer, phrases, etc), then learn less common stuff. It's not a revelation.

frooxie 15y ago
My point was that understanding a certain percentage of the words is very different from understanding the same percentage of the sentences in a book.

ajuc 15y ago

I've had similiar problem, and I've found that's not a problem at all. I was reading sci-fi book with many unknown (to me) words. Most of the time I had not bothered to check dictionary, because you could guess from the context what the missing words mean. If not right away - maybe the next time you encounter the same word. Or because you see how characters in the book reacts to our hero phaser. It's actually quite addictive - it feels like you're not only reading a story, but also solving a riddle. When I wanted to check every word, it quickly became a chore, and I've lost motivation to read further. So I recommend this way of reading foreign literature - for me it was very effective.

DanBC 15y ago
Your post strongly reminds me of this: (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/10/why_i_hate_star_trek.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/10/why_i_ha...) > He described how the writers would just insert "tech" into the scripts whenever they needed to resolve a story or plot line, then they'd have consultants fill in the appropriate words (aka technobabble) later. > "It became the solution to so many plot lines and so many stories," Moore said. "It was so mechanical that we had science consultants who would just come up with the words for us and we'd just write 'tech' in the script. You know, Picard would say 'Commander La Forge, tech the tech to the warp drive.' I'm serious. If you look at those scripts, you'll see that."

everyguy 15y ago

I taught myself to read Japanese and eventually work as a technical translator by starting with about a 20% understanding of the written language, but a 90% understanding of the underlying context. This made it possible to get the meaning of each passage through the keywords in that context which mapped closely to English words I already knew, and learn the connecting words and phrases through looking them up and researching how they are used. Computer dictionaries greatly increased the look-up speed.