Language Learning: The Truth About Vocabulary Part 1

Vocabulary? No Such thing!
Vocabulary learning is something that a lot of language students and learners focus on and worry about. Traumatic testing experiences at school might well be a major factor in this, but the main reason that vocabulary creates problems is that the division of languages into words is a highly impractical way of understanding – and therefore learning language. Once you understand that ‘vocabulary’ is just one way of understanding and breaking down language, as opposed to actual language, vocabulary learning will become infinitely more rewarding… and fun!

No words in the past
If you look at the most ancient examples of writing that we have, there are never any spaces between different words. Pictograms in scripts like Ancient Chinese or Egyptian Hieroglyphics are separated by image, and for alphabetic scripts like Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, the letters are all spaced equally apart. Through the lens of history, you realise that the concept of vocabulary is actually pretty modern. This is vitally important. When you believe that language is made up of only words (vocabulary) you miss out on two fundamental concepts and as a result can be terminally held back.