About unknown words

When I read a text in a foreign language, I frequently come across words I do not understand. Sometimes I look up the word in a dictionary and sometimes I guess. It depends very much upon the degree of accuracy which you require and the time at my disposal. So I think so, I remember the talking which Prof. Kamimoto said to us in reading class.

If I tend to use the dictionary frequently, I should remember that all dictionaries have limitations and no definition is completely accurate. But I will get an accurate understanding of a word after seeing it in a variety of contexts, so it is good to read many books. Dictionaries which translate from English into Japanese and from Japanese into English are not as accurate as dictionaries which define words in their own language. So I should also consult an English-English dictionary, I think!!

And, in most exams I am not permitted to use a dictionary. Even if I am allowed to use one, it takes a lot of time, and time in exams is usually limited, so I am forced to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.

There is no need to panic, however, because we can develop efficient methods to overcome such problems. Prof. Kamimoto showed two suggestions.
①- use contextual clues. The sentence and the story itself usually suggest possible meanings for individual wards.
②- The formation of the word itself may tell us a lot. If we look at the parts of the words, we may learn something about the whole words. For example: “ un “ means not, so any words beginning with “ un “ is likely to be a negative word.

We may also find it helpful to compare the unknown word with similar words in our language. [ 302 words ]