Many years ago, I found the following advice – in a book
on how to become a polyglot, that is, how to master many languages: Do not
learn synonyms. At the time, that provoked some protest in me, because I loved
to explore synonyms or similar words. The argument against was that if you
learned synonyms, you would lose free mental „disk space” for other words that
describe other things.
I have quite a few issues with that. First, I find it a
common attitude among language students, that they tend to disregard any word
as soon as they discover it is a synonym. A students asks me what XYZ means in
German. I give the first word that comes to my mind, and (almost) everybody in
the classroom is taking notes. As soon as I say that you could use also the
following words in German, the note-taking stops immediately. So, it is not a
secret beknown only to an elite of polyglots. On the contrary, everybody seems
to follow it instinctively. Apart from free „disk space”, many students believe
there is only one right word for any given concept.
As you will discover, as soon as you dig deeper into
words and their meanings, you will realize that even official synonyms vary
according to quite a lot of variables:
·
Some words
are more formal than others;
·
Some are
spoken more often in specific regions, among certain age, social, religious,
ethnical groups than others;
·
Some are
more poetic or figurative than others;
·
Some add
specific meaning the other words do not possess.
There are differences between the following words, or
not?
·
Restroom vs.
toilet
·
Murder vs.
homicide;
·
Displeased
vs. pissed;
·
Slander vs.
libel vs. gossip;
·
Alcoholic drink
vs. booze;
·
To scare vs.
to terrify vs. to terrorize;
·
To reveal
vs. to disclose;
·
House vs.
mansion;
·
A
„demonstration for women’s rights” vs. a „slut walk”
If you disregard synonyms you may end up using words out
of context or confound different registers of speech. You may ask a new
acquaintance at a dinner party if he or she also likes felines (at not cats),
offer the lady next to you to get her some booze or, asked about how your job
is, answer: I have nothing to bitch about.
The problem with textbooks, teachers and students
following the one thing-one word policy is that they almost never take down
notes on the specific circumstances the word is appropriate or not.
This is particularly true for one-language-only classrooms.
Many students want their teacher only to speak the target language. They say
that it is enough to understand „the meaning”. This leads to the teacher
avoiding the students’ native language altogether and making (often poor)
attempts of becoming a pantomime (or circus clown). Asked what „booze” means he
makes some drinking gestures, and everybody thinks he or she has an aha-moment.
In their heads they say, yes, it means „drink” (in whatever language they were
raised). After that, the typical student does not revise her or his
translations of all the words learned in such a way, later on. Yes, in the case
of „booze”, someone probably may tell her or him that it is appropriate only in
certain contexts. But, maybe nobody will, and everybody will think that you are
a freak, from a bad family, unpolite, etc.
In conclusion, all depends on the importance and
frequency of certain words and concepts. That, in turn, depends on your
individual goals for learning a language, the kinds of people you want to
interact with and the topics you want to be fluent in. Based on that you need
to calculate for what concepts it would be good to know all the nuances (and
synonyms) and for which not. If you want to work as a health professional in a
hospital, you better learn all slang, regional and informal words you can,
because your patients will come from all rounds of life. If you want to open up
a flower shop, especially online, you better study all potential synomyms
customers may use for any given flower. On the other hand, if you learn
Japanese for a retreat in a Zen monastery, you will not need to learn many
slang words.
If
you like the attitude of these articles, please check out my online courses : at the
moment, German for Russian- and Romanian-speakers, as well as on goal-setting.
If
you are interested in improving your English in the area of business
presentations, I know of no better address than Tom Antion. Please check him
out following this link.
Stay tuned!
Gerhard
About the GO
Method
The GO Method
applies research in psychology as well as principles of quality management to
the language teaching process.
Check us out
at The GO
Method.
About me
Psychologist
and polyglot from Hamburg /Germany (*1979). Married with children. MA in
psychology from the University of Hamburg. More than 15 years of experience as
a university lecturer in psychology as well as a consultant for UNICEF, Terre
des Hommes, IOM, the EU and private companies. Coordinator of the GO Method
network, with representatives in more than 90 countries worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment