English is my native language, and I’ve been a spelling and grammar nerd my entire life (I literally was the spelling bee champ in elementary school). I was an avid reader when I was younger… not so much anymore. Regardless, I like to think I have a fairly large vocabulary and know some pretty esoteric words. But there are also words that I recognize as quite common, and while I “kind of” know what they mean… I realize I can’t fully and accurately define them.
This realization first came my Japanese partner would ask me “what is the difference between X and Y?” And I’d think really hard about it, give her what I thought was the right answer… and then tell her to hang on while I consult a dictionary to make sure I was right.
I notice it happening with WaniKani too. I just got 接 in a lesson, which means “adjoin”, and I realized I probably couldn’t use it in a sentence confidently. After consulting a dictionary and a thesaurus and an LLM, I realized… yeah I didn’t fully know the meaning of that word. Given that, it’s unsurprising to realize that I’ve probably never written or spoken it a single time in my life. And after the research above, I realize it is fairly unique in its meaning. There are some “close” synonyms, but no single word replaces it perfectly. So how have I survived without ever using it? Easy: I’ve expressed the same concept using multi-word phrases.
It just feels really wild to me that I’m learning a foreign language, and I’m learning words to replace native words I’ve never even used. I’m sure that feeling will only happen more often as I reach the higher levels.
I found the same experience as you with words like adjoin and concession I too am a native English speaker, but in my case English was my weakest subject (due to various factors I won’t get into here). It’s been nice to strengthen and expand my vocabulary through WaniKani while learning Japanese along the way
For me this is definitely the case, while a bit different because Dutch is my first language and English my second. I feel like with my Japanese language journey I learn a bit more about both. I have been historically bad with languages for almost all of my live, partially due to my dyslexia. Things are more ‘vibe’ based with grammar etc
Another side effect I notice on a regular basis is that certain things are a lot easier to express in one language than another. I had several occasions where I knew what something meant in English but could not find an equivalent word in Dutch etc. At some point I expect this to happen for Japanese as well, but due to being quite early in my journey I expect this not to be the case for a while.
One of the weird quirks about learning a foreign language is that you often find yourself learning things like grammar rules and obscure vocab to a greater extent than native speakers do (or, than native speakers think they do). When you’re learning your native language, you learn all that stuff by osmosis - All [Native Language] All The Time, as it were. The language works how it works, and you need to use it the same way everyone else around you does in order to be understood.
When you learn a foreign language, though (i.e. specifically learning it as a second language rather than being raised bilingual), you actually sit down and study the grammar and learn the vocab. You gut-feeling your way through your native language, but you have to head-knowledge any foreign languages. So when someone learning your native language comes and asks you a head-knowledge question about your native language, it frequently causes a moment of “uh… I dunno, I’ve just gut-feelinged my way through that my entire life.”
Haha yeah when I first learned about the concept of the copula in Japanese, I went down a very weird English rabbit hole. And I think I finally understood for the first time in my life what a “helping verb” actually is.
And my Japanese partner absolutely sucks at explaining Japanese grammar rules to me. I don’t even try her anymore. I just go to the LLMs and pit them against each other.
I’d never evenheard of a geoduck before, and I’m a native English speaker. So I learned that as a new word. I had to look it up and see a picture. It’s a weird creature!
I coincidentally did learn about them a few years ago when a friend took me “fishing” for them (actually, digging, by hand) on the California coast. Are you aware that it’s pronounced “gooey” duck?
There were a few words that I did sanity checks to confirm their meanings. I had been using condolence and consolation rather interchangeably (excluding set phrases like consolation prize and condolence message), but the vocab is definitely different. I also had to confirm the meaning of censure. I think for adjoin, I simply referred to “adjoining room” for the overall meaning.
This being said, I also started looking up the full meanings of Japanese phrases as well, as I was wondering why there were 3 different words for “to publish”. 出版する、刊行する、掲載する My friends helped explain the differences, and I think they came up with a 4th one as well. In English, it’s true we’d say publish for them all, but they had differences in Japanese. Agreement also has 3 translations.
It’s definitely a fun experience, and does help reinforce our own native vocabulary.
I’m sure that feeling will only happen more often as I reach the higher levels.
