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Steve's Youtube Videos - Vocabulary, Word Count, Graded Readers and Fluency

Word Count, Graded Readers and Fluency

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here.

I'm sitting in Palm Springs, California. The sun is beating down on me. I'm going to talk about word count, graded readers and how many words we need to speak. It all has to do with this whole issue of word count.

My conclusions, because some of you want the conclusions upfront, is that to speak a language well you need lots of words.

If you just want to exchange pleasantries, you can do this with far fewer words. Fluency means speaking a language well; therefore, fluency means knowing a lot of words. Insofar as graded readers and the significance of word count, I find, personally, that I like to work, obviously, with easy, call it sheltered material, for the first few months, but I like to move into meaningful authentic content that's of interest to me as soon as possible. This depends on the language, but typically within a few months. Those are the conclusions. Now let's get into the details.

First of all, you'll notice that I have what looks like dirt underneath my nose.

This is because after I left Vancouver a group of people at LingQ decided that they would participate in this Movember Movement, which is sort of a promotion to raise money for men's health issues, prostate cancer or whatever, and that people involved in this movement will grow a moustache and will be raising money.

So at LingQ we've got a team together.

We've contributed some money, we're trying to raise money and we're all growing a moustache. I got a bit of a late start in this, but can assure you that Alex and Nav, in particular Mark, they're all sporting much more significant growth under their nose than I have so far. Anyway, I'm working here outside without my normal microphone; I hope the sound quality is okay.

Now, the subject of word count comes up all the time.

We had a thread at our forum at LingQ, someone was looking for more graded material for Russian on our site. We have a vast library of Russian content, lots of beginner material, lots of intermediate material. We recently obtained permission from Echo of Moscow to put all of their material on our website. I mean you won't find, not in 10 books, more material than we have at LingQ. Yet, still, this one learner said there's a gap between the sort of intermediate and upper intermediate. That the statistics at LingQ show him there are over 25% new words in some of the content that he would like to study, can we please fill the gap. This got me thinking. Then other people commented about how nice it is to have graded readers and so forth and so on.

Personally, I think it is unrealistic to expect that you can start with very simple material and then very gradually and seamlessly work your way through a lot of graded readers, sheltered text, embedded text and always deal with a very small number of new words.

I feel if you did that it would take forever to learn the number of words that you need. That's why, personally, I'm driven more by my interest in the subject matter and if there's 30-40% new words so be it, I work my way through it. I do vary this more difficult content with easier stuff, just to give myself a bit of a relief, but there are a few things to remember.

Yes, it's true that a relatively small number of words accounts for 70-80% of the content in any language.

I'm reading a book right now by Steven Pinker about the decline of violence in our society and he mentions in there that five words -- I think it was ‘a', ‘the', ‘be', ‘of' and maybe ‘it' or something -- accounts for like 20% of all content in English, but you can't say very much with those five words. The problem when you have the top 1,000 words is that it might account for 75% of any content, but you don't understand much with only those words. So I believe you need quite a large vocabulary.

The good thing about the fact that the most frequent words account for 70-80% of any content is that as you're pursuing content of interest and acquiring new words at a rather quicker pace, using LinqQ, for example, where you have online dictionaries and words and phrases saved into a database for review and all the rest of it, the advantage is that as you're pursuing these new words and I'm always motivated at LingQ to increase my known word count, that's kind of driving me, it forces me to regularly review the most frequent 70% so you're always going to get enough exposure to those most frequent words.

I guess the conclusion is, for those people who enjoy graded or sheltered reading, by all means, do what you like to do, but I don't think it's a condition of learning.

I don't think it's necessary. Personally, if I'm going to read Tolstoy, I don't want to read a dumbed-down, simplified version of Anna Karenina in 20 pages before attacking the full version, but some people do. I don't have anything against those people. I'm just saying that we should do what we want to, but it shouldn't be held out as a condition that you must have these graded readers, you must always have no more than 10% unknown words. This may be true when you're reading away from the computer, but typically, I build up my vocabulary very much using LingQ on the computer, on my iPad, in which case after a few months I'm hitting authentic material.

A related question, sort of the converse of this, is you often hear the statement that with a very small number of words you can actually say a lot.

It may be true that with a limited vocabulary, that is active vocabulary, you can express quite a few thoughts. However, if you're in a meaningful conversation with people, what matters sometimes even more is your ability to understand what they are saying and in order to understand what other people are saying, native speakers, you actually need a large vocabulary.

I can prove this at LingQ.

If I go in and grab from our library a transcript of a conversation in whatever language I'm studying, there will always be words there, important words to the conversation, that I don't understand, that are new to me. So we do need a large vocabulary, a passive vocabulary in my opinion, as sort of a defensive measure in order to be able to understand people in conversations and, of course, movies, books, newspapers, you name it. So I am in favor of working to acquire a large vocabulary. I think the suggestion that we only need a small vocabulary in order to be fluent, I don't agree.

Then you get these people who say well, the definition of fluent is vague and we don't know what it means.

Again, I don't agree. I think we know very well what fluent means. Fluent means speaking the language well, proficiently. Now, you can say I speak a certain language quite well, fairly well. That modifies the ‘well' so it's less than well. So you can be quite fluent, fairly fluent, but if you say I'm fluent it means I speak the language well. In order to say that you are fluent, in my view, you need a large vocabulary. What's more, you not only need a large vocabulary, you need a lot of exposure to the culture, the language, the people, to the environment surrounding the language. All of this takes quite a long time.

So to achieve fluency, in other words to speak the language well, takes a long time and requires quite a large vocabulary.

In my view, the shortest path to acquiring that vocabulary is not staying in sheltered reading, graded readers and other sort of classroom or specially-prepared-for-the-learner type of content. After a few months, I feel you have to challenge yourself with the real thing. The same as is the case with emersion. Talking to a teacher in a classroom is not emersion. Emersion is getting out there and talking to real people who are going to use a wide range of vocabulary and you need to have as much of that as possible.

So I've kind of ranged around this subject dealing with word count, graded readers, embedded reading, how many words you need to be fluent, what fluency means, but it's all part of the same theme.

The language that you are learning is rich and vibrant. There is no shortcut to fluency or being comfortable in this new environment. You have to put in the time and you have to make a certain amount of effort and, at times, that effort might mean stepping out of your comfort zone and moving into the real language environment.

With that, if I can move my cursor to where the stop on this thing is.

This is a problem. Now, where am I? It's kind of warm here, there's more light outside than inside, but I cannot find my cursor and so you'll have to bear with me. I might cut this off at the end, but where did that stupid cursor go.

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Word Count, Graded Readers and Fluency ||Calificado||| Term||||| ||Zróżnicowany||| Кількість слів|Кількість слів|Оцінений|Читачі||Біглість Wortzahl, abgestufte Leser und flüssiges Lesen Recuento de palabras, lecturas graduadas y fluidez Décompte des mots, lectures graduées et fluidité 単語数、グレーデッド・リーダー、流暢さ 단어 수, 등급이 매겨진 독자 및 유창성 Liczenie słów, czytanie z podziałem na klasy i płynność Contagem de palavras, leitores graduados e fluência Подсчет слов, оценочное чтение и беглость Kelime Sayısı, Dereceli Okuyucular ve Akıcılık Кількість слів, класифікація читачів та вільне володіння мовою 字數統計、分級讀者和流利程度

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here. Olá, fala Steve Kaufmann.

I'm sitting in Palm Springs, California. |sentado|||| |sentado|||| |||||Каліфорнія Ich sitze in Palm Springs, Kalifornien. Estou em Palm Springs, na Califórnia. The sun is beating down on me. |||shining intensely||| |||golpeando||| |сонце||пече||| Die Sonne brennt auf mich herab. O sol está a bater em mim. I'm going to talk about word count, graded readers and how many words we need to speak. ||||||conteo de palabras|graduados|lecturas graduadas|||||||| ||||||contagem|||||||||| |||||||рівневі||||||||| Ich werde über Wortzahl, bewertete Leser und wie viele Wörter wir sprechen müssen sprechen. Vou falar sobre a contagem de palavras, leitores graduados e quantas palavras precisamos para falar. It all has to do with this whole issue of word count. |||||||todo el|cuestión||| Es hat alles mit dieser ganzen Frage der Wortzahl zu tun. 이 모든 것은 단어 수 문제와 관련이 있습니다. Tudo tem a ver com esta questão da contagem de palavras.

My conclusions, because some of you want the conclusions upfront, is that to speak a language well you need lots of words. |||||||||na wstępie|||||||||||| |||||||||at the beginning|||||||||||| ||porque|||||||de antemano||||||||||muchas|| |висновки||||||||заздалегідь|||||||||||| |||||||||前もって|||||||||||| Meine Schlussfolgerungen, weil einige von Ihnen die Schlussfolgerungen im Voraus wollen, sind, dass man viele Wörter braucht, um eine Sprache gut zu sprechen. My conclusions, because some of you want the conclusions upfront, is that to speak a language well you need lots of words. As minhas conclusões, porque alguns de vós querem as conclusões à partida, são que para falar bem uma língua são necessárias muitas palavras.

If you just want to exchange pleasantries, you can do this with far fewer words. ||||||small talk|||||||| ||||||寒暄客套|||||||| ||||||Höflichkeiten|||||||| ||||||grzeczności|||||||| |||||обмінятися люб'язностями|люб'язності|||||||менше| ||||||挨拶|||||||| |||||intercambiar|cortesías triviales|||||||menos| Se quiser apenas trocar cumprimentos, pode fazê-lo com muito menos palavras. Fluency means speaking a language well; therefore, fluency means knowing a lot of words. ||||||portanto||significa||||| |||||||||having knowledge|||| Fluidez|significa|||||por lo tanto||||||| Вільне володіння мовою|||||||Вільне володіння|||||| Fließend bedeutet, eine Sprache gut zu sprechen; Daher bedeutet fließend, viele Wörter zu kennen. Fluência significa falar bem uma língua; por conseguinte, fluência significa conhecer muitas palavras. Insofar as graded readers and the significance of word count, I find, personally, that I like to work, obviously, with easy, call it sheltered material, for the first few months, but I like to move into meaningful authentic content that's of interest to me as soon as possible. W miarę jak||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| to the extent||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 限りでは||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| En la medida||graduados|||||||||encuentro||||||||||||protegido||||||meses iniciales|||||||significativo auténtico||contenido auténtico significativo|||||||lo antes posible||lo posible Оскільки||||||значущість|||||||||||||||||спрощений матеріал||||||||||||||справжній||||цікавить мене|||||| No que diz respeito aos leitores classificados e ao significado da contagem de palavras, pessoalmente, acho que gosto de trabalhar, obviamente, com material fácil, digamos, protegido, durante os primeiros meses, mas gosto de passar para conteúdos autênticos e significativos que sejam do meu interesse o mais rapidamente possível. This depends on the language, but typically within a few months. |||||||dentro de||| ||||||зазвичай|протягом||| Depende da língua, mas, normalmente, o prazo é de alguns meses. Those are the conclusions. São estas as conclusões. Now let's get into the details. Vamos agora entrar nos pormenores.

First of all, you'll notice that I have what looks like dirt underneath my nose. ||||||||||||pod|| ||||||||||||por baixo|| |з-поміж||||||||||бруд|під носом||під носом

This is because after I left Vancouver a group of people at LingQ decided that they would participate in this Movember Movement, which is sort of a promotion to raise money for men's health issues, prostate cancer or whatever, and that people involved in this movement will grow a moustache and will be raising money. ||||||||||||||||||||men's health awareness|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||tipo|||||arrecadar||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||鬍鬚十一月|運動||||||||||||||||||||||||運動||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||Movember|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||Рух Movember|рух||||||акція||зібрати гроші|||чоловічого|здоров'я чоловіків||простата|рак простати|||||||||||відрощувати||вуса||||збирати кошти| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||前立腺||||||||||||||口ひげ||||| ||||||||||||||||||||Movember||||||||||||de los hombres|||próstata||||||||||||||||||| Isto porque, depois de eu ter saído de Vancouver, um grupo de pessoas do LingQ decidiu participar no Movember Movement, que é uma espécie de promoção para angariar dinheiro para problemas de saúde masculina, cancro da próstata ou qualquer outro, e que as pessoas envolvidas neste movimento vão deixar crescer o bigode e angariar dinheiro.

So at LingQ we've got a team together. ||||||команда|

We've contributed some money, we're trying to raise money and we're all growing a moustache. |внесли вклад||||||||||||| |contribuido||||||||||||| I got a bit of a late start in this, but can assure you that Alex and Nav, in particular Mark, they're all sporting much more significant growth under their nose than I have so far. ||||||||||||assegurar||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||納夫|||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||Nav|||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||zapewnić|||||Nav|||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||запевняю|||Алекс і Нав||Нав і Марк||зокрема||||відрощують вуса|||значніший|зростання вусів|||||||| |||||||||||||||Alex||Nav||||||luciendo|||||||||||| Comecei um pouco tarde, mas posso garantir que o Alex e o Nav, em particular o Mark, estão todos a ter um crescimento muito mais significativo debaixo do nariz do que eu até agora. Anyway, I'm working here outside without my normal microphone; I hope the sound quality is okay. ||||||||micrófono normal||||||| de qualquer forma||||||||||||||| У будь-якому разі||||||||мікрофон|||||якість звуку|| De qualquer forma, estou a trabalhar aqui fora sem o meu microfone normal; espero que a qualidade do som seja boa.

Now, the subject of word count comes up all the time. |||||||||その| ||||||pojawia się|||| O tema da contagem de palavras está sempre a surgir.

We had a thread at our forum at LingQ, someone was looking for more graded material for Russian on our site. |||Thema||||||||||||||||| |||discussion topic||||||||||||||||| |||wątek||||||||||||||||| |||тема обговорення|||||||||||оцінений||||||сайті На нашем форуме на LingQ была тема, в которой кто-то искал больше градуированного материала по русскому языку на нашем сайте. We have a vast library of Russian content, lots of beginner material, lots of intermediate material. |||величезна|||||||||||| We recently obtained permission from Echo of Moscow to put all of their material on our website. ||erhalten|||||||||||||| ||uzyskaliśmy|||||||||||||| ||отримали|дозвіл||Ехо Москви||Москви|||||||||вебсайт Wir haben kürzlich die Erlaubnis von Echo of Moscow erhalten, ihr gesamtes Material auf unserer Website zu veröffentlichen. I mean you won't find, not in 10 books, more material than we have at LingQ. Quero dizer que não encontrará, nem em 10 livros, mais material do que aquele que temos no LingQ. Yet, still, this one learner said there's a gap between the sort of intermediate and upper intermediate. ||||||||розрив/прогалина/прірва|||||середній рівень||| ainda||||||||lacuna|||||||| No entanto, este aluno disse que existe um fosso entre o tipo de intermediário e o intermediário superior. That the statistics at LingQ show him there are over 25% new words in some of the content that he would like to study, can we please fill the gap. ||||||||||||||||вмісту||||||||||заповнити прогалину||пропуск, прогалина, розрив Que as estatísticas do LingQ lhe mostram que há mais de 25% de palavras novas em alguns dos conteúdos que ele gostaria de estudar, podemos, por favor, preencher a lacuna. This got me thinking. Then other people commented about how nice it is to have graded readers and so forth and so on. |||прокоментували|||приємно|||||||||||| Depois, outras pessoas comentaram como é bom ter leitores graduados, etc., etc.

Personally, I think it is unrealistic to expect that you can start with very simple material and then very gradually and seamlessly work your way through a lot of graded readers, sheltered text, embedded text and always deal with a very small number of new words. |||||||||||||||||||||nahtlos|||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||integrated text|||||||||||| |||||poco realista||||||||||||||||||||||||||||incrustado|||||||||||| Особисто я|||||нереалістично||||||||||||||||плавно|працювати|||крізь||||||адаптований текст||вбудований текст|||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||bezproblemowo||||||||||||wbudowany||||||||||||

I feel if you did that it would take forever to learn the number of words that you need. |||||||||вічність||||||||| |||||isso||||||||||||| Penso que, se o fizer, demorará uma eternidade a aprender o número de palavras de que necessita. That's why, personally, I'm driven more by my interest in the subject matter and if there's 30-40% new words so be it, I work my way through it. ||||||||||||assunto|||||||||||||| 그렇기 때문에 개인적으로 저는 주제에 대한 관심이 더 커서 30~40%의 새로운 단어가 나오면 그 단어에 집중해서 공부합니다. É por isso que, pessoalmente, sou mais motivado pelo meu interesse no assunto e, se houver 30-40% de palavras novas, que assim seja. Поэтому лично я больше руководствуюсь интересом к предмету, и если в книге 30-40% новых слов, то так тому и быть, я пройду через это. I do vary this more difficult content with easier stuff, just to give myself a bit of a relief, but there are a few things to remember. ||||||||||||||||||ulga|||||||| |роблю|чергую||||||||||||||||полегшення|||||||| 조금이라도 안심할 수 있도록 어려운 내용을 쉬운 내용으로 바꿔서 설명하지만, 몇 가지 기억해야 할 사항이 있습니다. Eu vario este conteúdo mais difícil com coisas mais fáceis, só para me aliviar um pouco, mas há algumas coisas a ter em conta.

Yes, it's true that a relatively small number of words accounts for 70-80% of the content in any language. |||||||||||||||||língua ||||||||||становлять|||||||

I'm reading a book right now by Steven Pinker about the decline of violence in our society and he mentions in there that five words -- I think it was ‘a', ‘the', ‘be', ‘of' and maybe ‘it' or something -- accounts for like 20% of all content in English, but you can't say very much with those five words. ||||||||平克尔||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||Rückgang|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||Steven Pinker|Pinker||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||Стівен Пінкер||||зменшення насильства||насильства||||||згадує|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||減少|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||przemoc|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The problem when you have the top 1,000 words is that it might account for 75% of any content, but you don't understand much with only those words. 상위 1,000개 단어가 전체 콘텐츠의 75%를 차지할 수 있지만 그 단어만으로는 많은 것을 이해하지 못한다는 것이 문제입니다. So I believe you need quite a large vocabulary. |||||bastante|||

The good thing about the fact that the most frequent words account for 70-80% of any content is that as you're pursuing content of interest and acquiring new words at a rather quicker pace, using LinqQ, for example, where you have online dictionaries and words and phrases saved into a database for review and all the rest of it, the advantage is that as you're pursuing these new words and I'm always motivated at LingQ to increase my known word count, that's kind of driving me, it forces me to regularly review the most frequent 70% so you're always going to get enough exposure to those most frequent words. ||||||||||||||||||||seeking|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||conta|||||||||buscando|||||adquirindo|||||bastante|mais rápida|ritmo|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||LingQ|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||verfolgen||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||verfolgen|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||LingQ|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||цей||найпоширеніші|||||||||||переглядаєте|||||||||||швидшим темпом|швидкістю||LingQ платформа|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||спонукає|||змушує|||||||найпоширеніші||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||dążenie do|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 가장 빈번한 단어가 모든 콘텐츠의 70~80%를 차지한다는 사실의 좋은 점은, 예를 들어 온라인 사전과 단어 및 구문을 데이터베이스에 저장하여 검토할 수 있는 링큐를 사용하여 관심 있는 콘텐츠를 추구하고 다소 빠른 속도로 새로운 단어를 습득할 때, 그리고 제가 링큐에서 항상 알려진 단어 수를 늘리고자 하는 동기를 가지고 있기 때문에, 가장 빈번한 70%의 단어를 정기적으로 검토하도록 강제하므로 항상 이러한 가장 자주 사용되는 단어에 충분히 노출될 수 있다는 장점이 있다는 것입니다. O bom do facto de as palavras mais frequentes representarem 70-80% de qualquer conteúdo é que, à medida que se procura conteúdo de interesse e se adquirem novas palavras a um ritmo mais rápido, utilizando o LinqQ, por exemplo, onde se tem dicionários online e palavras e frases guardadas numa base de dados para revisão e tudo o resto, a vantagem é que, à medida que vai procurando novas palavras - e eu estou sempre motivado no LingQ para aumentar o meu número de palavras conhecidas, o que me motiva -, isso obriga-me a rever regularmente os 70% mais frequentes, para que tenha sempre exposição suficiente a essas palavras mais frequentes.

I guess the conclusion is, for those people who enjoy graded or sheltered reading, by all means, do what you like to do, but I don't think it's a condition of learning. ||||||||||||protegida||||||||||||||||||| |||висновок|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Acho que a conclusão é que, para as pessoas que gostam de leitura graduada ou protegida, façam o que quiserem, mas não acho que seja uma condição de aprendizagem.

I don't think it's necessary. Personally, if I'm going to read Tolstoy, I don't want to read a dumbed-down, simplified version of Anna Karenina in 20 pages before attacking the full version, but some people do. |||||||||||||簡化的||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||verblödete||||||Karenina||||||||||| |||||||||||||simplificada|||||Ana Karenina|Ana Karenina|||||la versión completa|||||| ||||||Толстого|||||||спрощений||спрощена версія|||Анна Кареніна|Анна Кареніна||||братися до||||||| |||||||||||||uproszczone||||||||||||||||| Pessoalmente, se vou ler Tolstoi, não quero ler uma versão simplificada de Anna Karenina em 20 páginas antes de atacar a versão completa, mas há quem o faça. I don't have anything against those people. I'm just saying that we should do what we want to, but it shouldn't be held out as a condition that you must have these graded readers, you must always have no more than 10% unknown words. This may be true when you're reading away from the computer, but typically, I build up my vocabulary very much using LingQ on the computer, on my iPad, in which case after a few months I'm hitting authentic material. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||encountering|| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||натрапляю на|| Isto pode ser verdade quando se está a ler longe do computador, mas, normalmente, eu construo o meu vocabulário muito usando o LingQ no computador, no meu iPad, e, nesse caso, ao fim de alguns meses, estou a atingir material autêntico.

A related question, sort of the converse of this, is you often hear the statement that with a very small number of words you can actually say a lot. ||||||contrario|||||||||||||||||||||| |verwandt|||||umgekehrt|||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||逆|||||||||||||||||||||| |relacionada|||||o oposto|||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||обернений||||||||твердження|||||||||||||| Uma questão relacionada, mais ou menos o inverso disto, é que se ouve frequentemente a afirmação de que com um número muito pequeno de palavras se pode dizer muito.

It may be true that with a limited vocabulary, that is active vocabulary, you can express quite a few thoughts. |||||||||||||||висловлювати|||| |||||||||||ativo|||||||| É verdade que com um vocabulário limitado, ou seja, um vocabulário ativo, é possível exprimir muitos pensamentos. However, if you're in a meaningful conversation with people, what matters sometimes even more is your ability to understand what they are saying and in order to understand what other people are saying, native speakers, you actually need a large vocabulary. no entanto|||||uma conversa significativa|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I can prove this at LingQ. ||довести|||

If I go in and grab from our library a transcript of a conversation in whatever language I'm studying, there will always be words there, important words to the conversation, that I don't understand, that are new to me. |||||||||||||||qualquer que seja||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||взяти|||||транскрипт розмови|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| So we do need a large vocabulary, a passive vocabulary in my opinion, as sort of a defensive measure in order to be able to understand people in conversations and, of course, movies, books, newspapers, you name it. ||||||||||||||||||Maßnahme||||||||||||||||||| |||||великий||||||||||||захисний захід|захід||||бути здатним||щоб||||||||фільми|книги|газети||| So I am in favor of working to acquire a large vocabulary. ||||підтримую||||||| I think the suggestion that we only need a small vocabulary in order to be fluent, I don't agree. |||пропозиція|||||||||||||||

Then you get these people who say well, the definition of fluent is vague and we don't know what it means. |||||||||||||unclear||||||| |||||||||||||niejasna||||||| |||||||||||||нечіткий|||||||

Again, I don't agree. I think we know very well what fluent means. Fluent means speaking the language well, proficiently. ||||||熟練地 ||||||kompetent ||||||biegłe ||||||вільно ||||||con competencia Now, you can say I speak a certain language quite well, fairly well. |||||||||||досить добре| |||||||||||bastante| That modifies the ‘well' so it's less than well. |ändert||||||| |змінює||||||| |modifica||||||| Isso modifica o "bem", por isso é menos do que bem. So you can be quite fluent, fairly fluent, but if you say I'm fluent it means I speak the language well. ||||fairly|||||||||||||||| ||||bastante|||||||||||||||| In order to say that you are fluent, in my view, you need a large vocabulary. What's more, you not only need a large vocabulary, you need a lot of exposure to the culture, the language, the people, to the environment surrounding the language. |||||||||||||||||||||||||ao redor|| ||||||||||||||ekspozycja||||||||||||| All of this takes quite a long time.

So to achieve fluency, in other words to speak the language well, takes a long time and requires quite a large vocabulary.

In my view, the shortest path to acquiring that vocabulary is not staying in sheltered reading, graded readers and other sort of classroom or specially-prepared-for-the-learner type of content. ||||||||||||||geschützten||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||remaining||||||||||||||||||| ||||найкоротший шлях|шлях|||||||||||||||||||спеціально підготовлений||||||| ||||más corto||||||||||||||||||||||||||| After a few months, I feel you have to challenge yourself with the real thing. Nach ein paar Monaten habe ich das Gefühl, dass Sie sich mit der Realität herausfordern müssen. The same as is the case with emersion. |||||||浮現 |||||||Auftauchen |||||||wyjście |||||||вихід на поверхню |||||||emergencia Dasselbe gilt für die Emersion. Talking to a teacher in a classroom is not emersion. |||||||||занурення в середовище |||||||||inmersión lingüística Emersion is getting out there and talking to real people who are going to use a wide range of vocabulary and you need to have as much of that as possible. Engagement|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||використовувати||широкий спектр|||||||||||||| Emersion geht raus und spricht mit echten Menschen, die ein breites Vokabular verwenden werden, und Sie müssen so viel wie möglich davon haben.

So I've kind of ranged around this subject dealing with word count, graded readers, embedded reading, how many words you need to be fluent, what fluency means, but it's all part of the same theme. ||||||||||||||integrated|||||||||||||||||||| ||||abordado|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||zakres|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||торкався різних аспектів||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||тема Also habe ich mich irgendwie um dieses Thema herum bewegt und mich mit Wortzahl, benoteten Lesern, eingebettetem Lesen, wie viele Wörter Sie brauchen, um fließend zu sprechen, was fließend bedeutet, aber es ist alles Teil desselben Themas. 그래서 저는 단어 수, 등급이 매겨진 리더, 임베디드 읽기, 유창해야 하는 단어 수, 유창함의 의미 등 다양한 주제를 다루었지만 모두 같은 주제의 일부입니다. Por isso, tenho andado um pouco à volta deste assunto, abordando a contagem de palavras, os leitores graduados, a leitura integrada, quantas palavras são necessárias para ser fluente, o que significa fluência, mas tudo faz parte do mesmo tema.

The language that you are learning is rich and vibrant. |||||||||żywy |||||||||vibrante |||||||багата||яскравий |||||||||活気に満ち There is no shortcut to fluency or being comfortable in this new environment. |||skrót||||||||| |||швидкий шлях||||||||| Não existe um atalho para a fluência ou para se sentir confortável neste novo ambiente. You have to put in the time and you have to make a certain amount of effort and, at times, that effort might mean stepping out of your comfort zone and moving into the real language environment. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||зона комфорту||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||zona de confort||||||||

With that, if I can move my cursor to where the stop on this thing is. |||||||游標|||||||| |||||||カーソル|||||||| |||||||курсор миші|||||||| Damit, wenn ich meinen Cursor dorthin bewegen kann, wo das Ding aufhört. Com isso, se eu puder mover o meu cursor para onde está a paragem desta coisa.

This is a problem. This||| Now, where am I? It's kind of warm here, there's more light outside than inside, but I cannot find my cursor and so you'll have to bear with me. ||||||||||||||||||||||geduldig sein|| ||||||||||||||||cursor|||||||| |||тепло|||||||всередині||||||курсор миші||||||терпіти|| Es ist ziemlich warm hier, draußen ist mehr Licht als drinnen, aber ich kann meinen Cursor nicht finden, also musst du mich ertragen. Aqui está um pouco quente, há mais luz lá fora do que cá dentro, mas não consigo encontrar o meu cursor e, por isso, vão ter de me aturar. I might cut this off at the end, but where did that stupid cursor go. ||||||||||||дурний||