掲示板 Forums - Just a though: Common word are the most inefficient way to learn a language

Disclaimer: Despite the more or less provocative title, I'm not here to debate about what is the "correct" way to learn a language and will ignore the comment which want to debate that (or at least try, cuz I'm a moron that can't help himself T_T). It's just a thought that I want to share which may or may not be useful to some people. Also, I'm not here to say that you should not learn common words. You should definitely do that as it is necessary, especially for the most common one. But you may not want to put as much effort as you currently are depending on your goal and situation.

That being said, let's get into the topic. There are two main idea to my thought:

1. You will remember the words that you use and eventually forget the one that you don't, even if you spent years learning them. Even native can forget their own mother tongue when spending a significant time living in another country talking in that other language.
   
2. Learning common words is a gamble where you hope that you will encounter the words that you learned. For the most common one, and by that I'm thinking of の for example which is the most common word in a lot of frequency list, it's a good gamble. But the more you progress in those lists, the more it will become a bad gamble. Well, "the more you progress, the more it become uncommon, so... what's your point?", you may be thinking. Yeah but is it really that linear? In the 10 000 words, how many are you really going to encounter? When does it start to become a "bad gamble"? And not, for everyone btw. I'm talking only about you, your specific goals and your specific situation.

Let's just stop a instant on the argumentation and take an example, and even a personal one: 郵便局 (post office)
At some point, I use that word as an example of word that can reasonably ignore and not learn for a lot people (and just keep it in your backlog for now). It appear on some basic list of common word (Maybe N5 or the kankei one, I'm not sure anymore) and it's also a somewhat difficult word for an beginner (especially with 3 kanji). When are you going to encounter that word in real life? Are you gonna go to a Japanese post office soon? If you're gonna live in japan soon as a student for example, certainly. You will definitely use it, at least because you probably have to send some administrative document. But for the other one, when? You're not gonna go to a Japanese post office. If you're not gonna go to a Japanese post, you're not gonna ask about it either. But perhaps, you are working in a post office and in that case, yeah definitely. But otherwise when? After learning it, you will maybe spend years without seeing it again if are not planning to live in Japan soon. And eventually, you will forget it, "wasting" quite a bit of time.

I simplify it a lot but what I want to say is: Not all common words are worth the effort, even some very "frequent" common word. Again, I'm not here to say you shouldn't learn common word. But just create two frequency list for two different type people based on any criteria and you will see some drastic changes. Just divide the people that are going to live in japan soon and those who simply want to learn Japanese as hobby while staying in their own country (and maybe just go on vacation occasionally), the word they are gonna use, hear and read will be completely different. Not for the most common of course. But even for the first 1000 ones, they will be a lot of change. Depending on you, your specific goals and your specific situation.

Past that point, I can't really argue much more. If it doesn't convince you, well it's not something for you.
So I will just move onto the next point: Don't spend too much effort on those common words list. Continue to do it as "background task" but do not spend all your effort on that. The more your progress, the less useful/efficient it will become. Especially the JLPT or the newspaper frequency list if you're not gonna live in japan soon or if you don't plan it all. What is the goal of the JLPT? It's to certify your level of japanese for the people who want to live in japan (to study or work there). There are a lot of everyday life word, that are common, but you're not gonna use them if you don't live in japan. What are the newspapers for? There are here to inform EVERYONE on EVERYTHING about society. That's like the freaking end goal of your learning journey. Setting that as your first goal and main way to learn japanese is like a baby trying to read and speak like a freaking adult. It's a shortcut, that you may be able to take at first, until you realize it's taking you to a mountain bigger that why you can ever imagine. Newspapers are for fully developed and educated adult native that lives in that country. And even native don't read everything. Their mainly focus on what's concern them. Even in your own language, do you read everything in the newspapers? I know, I'm not. I'm not an expert on everything and it's pointless to pretend that I can have an opinion things that are outside my area of expertise. Could I still read them? Somewhat. Will I know every words in them? Definitely not. That's the reason dictionary exist.

So, again, I talk too much and it could probably shorten by a lot but what I want to finally say is: Except at the beginning, learning "common words" is not an efficient way to learn a language. Because they are not common. And what I mean by that is that they are gonna be common FOR YOU. So stop putting all your effort in learning those common words list. Don't stop to learn it completely! Just try put that "common word learning" as background task and start learning words that YOU will use or read or hear. Seriously, it will help a lot. Choose some specific topic and learn about those. Think about what you will use in the future. You like anime and one of your short/mid-term goal is to watch anime in japanese? Well, go for it. Fully.
There are some frequency list for that on the internet. It's the same principle as the other frequency list. But more adapted to you. And at the same time with the same problem. You don't like "slice of life" and are more into "fantasy" one? Well, you will probably encounter both on those. Put less effort the "slice of life" ones and more effort on the "fantasy" ones. Or the opposite and learn the JLPT again. Yeah the JLPT. Because it will be more "specific" to you as you will learn "everyday life" words that you will probably see in those slice of life (neither of my critics are absolutely true for everyone despite my probably "harsh" tone against the JLPT and the newspapers list).

And then rinse and repeat. As soon as you begin to be able to completely immerse yourself on that specific subject, it will snowball to everything else. It will seriously save you an awful lot of time. And when I say "snowball to everything else", I mean really "everything". Sentences and grammar are the same everywhere. The most common are the same everywhere. And the somewhat common word are also the same between the somewhat common topic. Even really "advanced", "specialized" or "complicated" topic may shorten your learning journey by a lot.

And I'm talking from experience since it happened to me by accident for English. I was bad at English during school until I had an internship during my master degree. During that internship, I read about 400 god damn research papers on math and biology. It was a nightmare. I was still not good even if I was not a beginner. And after that I kinda woke up to realize "ah... I'm somewhat able to read English". It gave a "boost" in confidence which played a bit but mainly it "structured" my ability to read in English. So yeah, my freaking advice to sum up is "You can use whatever you want to start immersing yourself in your target language". Even freaking research paper on math and biology can make a good step stone... (I don't know if I want to cry or laugh on that one...)
After that, I never studied English anymore. I just read and watch things in English. Especially Youtube. That was enough.

Oh and btw, I learn "curtain" in English the other day. Because I learn カーテン in Japanese. I still don't know or ignore a lot of common word in English. Or just forgot about them. Because I don't live in English country and never use those common "everyday's life" words. That didn't prevent to read or talk in English. Is my english native? No, be it on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. Is it good enough? Well, for me, I guess (don't bash me too much on my grammar T_T)
And the same is true for Japanese right now. I'm learning more slang or specialized word than "common word" and I'm starting to have some freaking progress because I can finally immerse myself decently in japanese by watching japanese content (youtube mainly/only). I hear them everyday and even if I don't learn them actively on renshuu or elsewhere, I'm learning them even if I don't want too. I'm also learning math/chemistry vocabulary or even law vocabulary because one of my japanese friend is studying math/chemistry and the other law. But you know what? It sticks. Because their are my "common word" that I hear and use everyday.

Anyway, now I gonna cry somewhere and reflect on the meaning of the word "concise" while trying to forget that most people won't read some freaking dissertation by an moron on small corner on the internet. If you read until there, thanks for reading, hope it will help you a bit and have a good day =p
Freaking 1AM here, why am doing that to myself, seriously.... T_T