Comments on: The top 2000 words in Russian http://languagegeek.net/2007/06/16/the-top-2000-words-in-russian/ Just blogging about my language geekery. Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:54:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Josh http://languagegeek.net/2007/06/16/the-top-2000-words-in-russian/#comment-11760 Josh Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:08:58 +0000 http://languagegeek.net/2007/06/16/the-top-2000-words-in-russian/#comment-11760 Jon: Welcome to the blog, and thanks for commenting! I too thought (I read it somewhere, actually) that knowing 2000 core words was enough to follow basic conversations and what not. After learning German for so long now, I don't agree with the 2000 thing. I'm not sure how many words I know in German, but I'd bet my left arm I know more than 2000 words, and I still struggle through many news articles. 10,000 words is indeed a large number, but I have to admit that after my experiences with German, I'd say 10,000 is closer to the mark than 2,000. And, agreed - the idea of needing to know 10,000 words as a "good base" in a language is daunting. But, really, it's not that surprising. I've read that the average (whatever that means, heh) person knows 10,000-20,000 words. <a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/howmany.htm" rel="nofollow">This site</a> says that one fellow figured that the average college graduate might have an active vocabulary of 60,000 words, and a passive one of 75,000. I don't know if that's too high or not, but I do know that 2,000 words just isn't going to cut it. Glad you're liking Anki. It's a welcome change from SuperMemo. Jon: Welcome to the blog, and thanks for commenting! I too thought (I read it somewhere, actually) that knowing 2000 core words was enough to follow basic conversations and what not. After learning German for so long now, I don’t agree with the 2000 thing. I’m not sure how many words I know in German, but I’d bet my left arm I know more than 2000 words, and I still struggle through many news articles.

10,000 words is indeed a large number, but I have to admit that after my experiences with German, I’d say 10,000 is closer to the mark than 2,000. And, agreed - the idea of needing to know 10,000 words as a “good base” in a language is daunting. But, really, it’s not that surprising. I’ve read that the average (whatever that means, heh) person knows 10,000-20,000 words. This site says that one fellow figured that the average college graduate might have an active vocabulary of 60,000 words, and a passive one of 75,000. I don’t know if that’s too high or not, but I do know that 2,000 words just isn’t going to cut it.

Glad you’re liking Anki. It’s a welcome change from SuperMemo.

]]> By: Jon http://languagegeek.net/2007/06/16/the-top-2000-words-in-russian/#comment-11642 Jon Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:02:12 +0000 http://languagegeek.net/2007/06/16/the-top-2000-words-in-russian/#comment-11642 Hi Josh, excellent blog mate! Just found it a few nights ago and have been reading through. I've often thought about frequency lists and have tried to gauge how many words are necessary to have a strong foundation in a language. Originally I thought 70% (about 2000 words) might be adequate, but I know people from my Russian classes who know many more and still have great difficulty following natural conversations, movies, radio etc. For example (and this is just a really rough example!), the following sentence has 20% of the words removed and subsequently loses its meaning: Olya doesn't like ????, she prefers ???? because it is easier to ???? and doesn't make her feel ????. The original might have gone something like: Olya doesn't like beer, she prefers vodka because it is easier to swallow and doesn't make her feel too full. or: Olya doesn't like vodka, she prefers mineral water because it is easier to drink and doesn't make her feel dizzy. Of course these example are quite artificial, but you get my drift. So in reading around the net there seems to be some opinions that about 10,000 words make a good base. But that's a heck of a lot of words and a big chunk of neural real estate (well, at least in my old brain!). Not to mention the time investment involved - I can do about 2 new words per day, on a consistent basis, so to reach the goal of 10,000 would take me approximately 14 years!!! :) But on your advice I've recently installed Anki (great word learning software), so hopefully I can reduce that down to 10 years or so :) All the best, Jon. Hi Josh, excellent blog mate! Just found it a few nights ago and have been reading through.

I’ve often thought about frequency lists and have tried to gauge how many words are necessary to have a strong foundation in a language. Originally I thought 70% (about 2000 words) might be adequate, but I know people from my Russian classes who know many more and still have great difficulty following natural conversations, movies, radio etc.

For example (and this is just a really rough example!), the following sentence has 20% of the words removed and subsequently loses its meaning:

Olya doesn’t like ????, she prefers ???? because it is easier to ???? and doesn’t make her feel ????.

The original might have gone something like:

Olya doesn’t like beer, she prefers vodka because it is easier to swallow and doesn’t make her feel too full.

or:

Olya doesn’t like vodka, she prefers mineral water because it is easier to drink and doesn’t make her feel dizzy.

Of course these example are quite artificial, but you get my drift.

So in reading around the net there seems to be some opinions that about 10,000 words make a good base. But that’s a heck of a lot of words and a big chunk of neural real estate (well, at least in my old brain!). Not to mention the time investment involved - I can do about 2 new words per day, on a consistent basis, so to reach the goal of 10,000 would take me approximately 14 years!!! :)

But on your advice I’ve recently installed Anki (great word learning software), so hopefully I can reduce that down to 10 years or so :)

All the best,

Jon.

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