Hi Fediverse! I’m writing this post to ask you to share your experience on learning your native language through your fundamental education or your private life.
As a non-native English speaker but currently using it as working language, I can survive in my daily life e.g., technical terms, talks with customer services or so. But when I really try to watch movies, series or read literature books, it is so discouraging that many words, which are essential to native speakers, are strange to me. Let me show you some words that are recently added into my learning list: paranoid, cursive, intricate, ameliorate… There are thousands of them not even including words from fantasy novels or those D&D things.
I believe that a random six-year-old wouldn’t know those higher level words (in terms of comparing to ‘hello’ or ‘nice’) either. Even a native speaker acquires those vocabulary gradually. So I am curious what is your language education look like? Since when do you realize that you understand most content in your native language and what have you done before that?
I do have English as an example but any other language is also welcome. Feel free to share anything. Thank you in advance : )
Join the library. Ask for recommendations on English classics. A good librarian always knows. Every so often get an audiobook as well as the paper version for reference or reinforcement of something that may be confusing - be it a sentence, a paragraph, a phrase, a word or a chapter. Optionally, allow yourself only 2 checkouts of the same book before moving on. (That is a total of 4 weeks at my library - yes I still have a library card). I find this creates a learning pace you can measure & therefore stick to. It helps to have a consistent & structured timeline or you’ll not progress, could slowly give up or simply forget words after long breaks between books. Read out loud the new/interesting/difficult words to yourself so you can hear the sound those words make. Then listen to how other people say those words. Online dictionaries can be of help with pronunciation. If you’re not confident to use a word or phrase, even if you’ve read it - you’ll soon forget it or not use it correctly. Confidence comes with familiarity; familiarity with practice.