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Learning to Learn

(kevin.the.li)
320 points jklm | 1 comments | 22 Oct 24 00:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.266s | source
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dinobones ◴[22 Oct 24 03:39 UTC] No.41910980[source]▶
I've been wanting to try this approach for learning a language.

In English for example, learning the 800 most common words, you can understand 75% of the language: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44569277.

I'd love to start fresh on a new language, take 800 new words, try to learn 10 a day, and see where I get after 3 months. Can I really understand 75% of text if I have perfect recall of those 800 words?

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1. autumnstwilight ◴[22 Oct 24 05:14 UTC] No.41911390[source]▶
In my experience, the words that carry the most information in a sentence are the less common ones. Here's what understanding 80% of a sentence is like:

"I went to the sdjfkdsh and got a new ghjsakgfh."

The missing words could be "dealership" and "truck" or "embassy" and "passport" or quite a lot of other pairs that change the topic entirely, so reading or listening to something with 80% understanding generally requires a dictionary in one hand to get you up to a reasonable level of comprehension. That said, I personally think language learning is enjoyable and rewarding, and tackling the most common word list is a good first step.