Renegade Yogi

Language learning hack to multiply your vocab and deepen your conversations

The problem

I’d like to describe a technique I’ve used to get over what I call “The Blank Stare of Data Retrieval”. It’s kind of an exaggeration, but I think we’ve all experienced it. You’re talking with someone who doesn’t speak your language, every thing’s going fine, then all of a sudden, he busts out a word you don’t know. And you have no idea what he’s talking about. Context doesn’t help. You just stare at him, while you access your internal databanks for any inkling of an idea of what he means.

That’s “The Blank Stare of Data Retrieval”. It lasts longer when you can’t find the word in your databanks. Then maybe you panic and look harder, and stare longer. Your conversation is totally broken. No repairing it.

Ok, that’s what could happen in the worst case. There’s an easy solution that will actually deepen your conversation instead of relegating it to oblivion. And you might learn something from it, as well.

When someone says a word you don’t know, you can always ask him about it. With a little preparation, you can have enough questions worked out that you can figure out what the word means. It’s like a game of twenty questions, but don’t call it that because no one wants to play your silly games. You’ll know, though, that you (and he) are playing a silly game.

Here’s a rough outline of what this technique might look like. Imagine this is all in French. The English just means I understand it. The stuff that actually is in French is what I don’t understand.

Gregoire: I don’t like it when people se vantent.

Eric: Hmmm. I don’t know what that means, “se vantent”. Is it an action?

Gregoire: Yes, it’s an action.

Eric: Oh, I see. It’s something that people do?

Gregoire: Right. Normally only people do it.

Eric: What type of person would do it? A man or a woman?

Gregoire: Both. It doesn’t matter. People who are insecure.

Eric: And this helps them with their insecurity?

Gregoire: Yes. It helps them hide it.

Eric: They hide it by talking about their good qualities?

Gregoire: Exactly! That’s what it means.

Eric: Oh! It means to brag!

See, I didn’t have to jump to English (good thing, Gregoire doesn’t speak English). I stayed in French and had a little discussion about the meaning of this word. And now I have a new word! More importantly, I engaged Gregoire instead of disengaging to try to guess what the word means.

The takeaway

There are two classes of things you need to learn to be able to use this technique. Questions and categories.

Learn questions

There are some basic skeleton questions that are really useful. You should learn how to say these, and learn any others you feel you need to ask.

• Is X a Y (or a Z)? — example: Is a rabbit an animal or a plant?
• What type/kind of X is Y? — example: What type of tool is a shovel?
• What type of X would do Y? — useful for actions
• What is the function of X? What do you do with X?
• Where could I find X?
• What is an/another example of X?
• etc.

Learn categories

Things to fill in the X’s and Y’s in the questions.

• person
  • man
  • woman
• animal
  • domestic animal
  • farm animal
  • wild animal
• plant
  • tree
  • edible plant
• machine
• building
• etc.

Conclusion

You don’t know how much this helped me. It gave me the power to ask about things that people said, without resorting to another language, which often I couldn’t do. It lets you engage even when you don’t understand. It shows that you are curious instead of showing them a blank stare of confusion, which is often misinterpreted as stupidity or worse. You can now engage more meaningfully with people. You have the power to learn almost any new word. And your vocabulary will increase because of it.