Has Your English Vocabulary Shrank Over The Years?

[Pacificperson]

Shrunk NOT shrank

His English vocabulary shrank over the years.

His English vocabulary has shrunk over the years.

Thank you. I can see that my ability to properly conjugate irregular verbs has shrunk.

[trainman34014]

It's not the vocabulary that's shrinking; it's the individuals brain slowly turning to scrambled eggs as the years pass. At 67 I have not lost any of my ability to remember words but I have to think hard sometimes about their spelling, something I've never had a problem with until the last year or two.

[HUAHIN62]

You need to be alone on Mars for a 100 years before your vocabulary becomes as bad as that of the twittering youth.

[Radar501]

My English vocabulary is not the only thing that has shrunk over the years.

[Jingthing]

Nyet.

[Suradit69]

Shrunk NOT shrank

His English vocabulary shrank over the years.

His English vocabulary has shrunk over the years.

Yes, and "a honest case of use it or loose it" ought to be "an honest case of use it or lose it," though what that has to do with honesty remains a mystery.

"His English vocabulary has shrunk over the years."

Most things appear larger in the mirror of memory. I guess some people didn't have that much to lose to begin with (or with which to begin).

Edited May 3, 2013 by Suradit69

[cooked]

'Bedrunkit' is an invention of mine as is 'Farnag'. I developed a Germanic accent after 40 years in Switzerland apparently. I spent my first 20 years there hardly ever speaking or hearing English but I read a lot. This resulted in my thinking and writing in the style of the book that I was reading at the time. Thank goodness I weened myself off Thackeray and improved my mind by reading Terry Pratchett et al.

We should be ashamed of ourselves for talking pidgin English to our wives (as I do) but the effort involved in making clear certain concepts sometimes doesn't seem worth it.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[chrisinth]

It used to depend on what I was drinking at the time......

Anywhere from the one bottle full-on conversation, to the 16 bottle grunt.............

[super22k]

Sometimes I find myself struggling for words that I would have spoken easily in th UK. It seems, living in a country with another language dulls the senses. Of course,it is the same for Thais living in an English speaking country .I know of a Thai girl who came back to Thailand from the UK because she had little chance to speak Thai and was becoming non-articulate. She had to think twice before she said anything.

One of the answers is ,when you do meet an English speaking person talk......talk......talk ......and talk!

[Jingthing]

Linguistically, I have become more of an Anglophile in Thailand. I think if I moved back to the USA there would be an awkward adjustment period. That gun violence was spot on, Khrap! These are bloody good grits! That cockfight was brilliant!

Edited May 3, 2013 by Jingthing

[MacGuffin]

Indubitably .

[chuang]

Shrunk.

Brain, I believe...

[AhFarangJa]

Actually I think that my English language vocabulary has increased since I started using Thaivisa.com. I have to regularly use the dictionary to find the meaning of some of those 5 syllable words that the Brits like to use!

Like monosyllabic (rather apt for the thread)?

Suggest op talk to oneself... often the only way to get some sense in the land of sXen-o-pho-bi-a.

I started talking to myself, but realised something was seriously wrong when I started answering back

[bangkokpoppys]

Humans are tribal and we adapt to our surroundings.....

[Sigurris]

I cannot bear to hear Tinglish spoken, especially when it is spoken to a Farang. If it happens to me I usually ask them why they are speaking like a 4 year old.

It is quite understandable when having short conversations to some Thais but it is never a good idea to speak it to your girlfriend or wife IMHO. If you speak Tinglish this will be the benchmark for her English. By speaking English correctly you will encourage her to speak correctly. It is a struggle, initially, but it pays dividends in the long run.

When I met my gf her English was minimal but my Thai was reasonable so we communicated using a mixture. I continued to speak normal English (obviously I occasionally needed to dumb things down) with full use of articles etc. And I would correct her (and still do to a lesser extent).

Two years later her understanding of English is excellent and her spoken English is very good, to the point where she now works for a British Property Company as the only Thai. The downside to this is that I have forgotten so much Thai as we never use the language anymore. She even speaks English to the dog!!

[canuckamuck]

Mine is still huge.

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Linguistically, I have become more of an Anglophile in Thailand. I think if I moved back to the USA there would be an awkward adjustment period. That gun violence was spot on, Khrap! These are bloody good grits! That cockfight was brilliant!

Yes, indeed. I find my (Canadian) self searching for a word and it comes out bloody British. Even to the point of saying ICE hockey. In Canada, there is only hockey.

[super22k]

Some of the posts on ThaiVisa are too long. They use words they would never use in a normal conversation. One of the secrets of good writing is to say in two paragraphs what it takes long winded contributors a whole page to say.

If someone has not made their point within a few lines I lose interest.

Words are a way to communicate your feelings and your thoughts,not for computer educated Farangs who call themselves English language teachers, to show off their teaching skills.They think they know more about the English language than William Shakespeare.

[AhFarangJa]

Some of the posts on ThaiVisa are too long. They use words they would never use in a normal conversation. One of the secrets of good writing is to say in two paragraphs what it takes long winded contributors a whole page to say.

If someone has not made their point within a few lines I lose interest.

Words are a way to communicate your feelings and your thoughts,not for computer educated Farangs who call themselves English language teachers, to show off their teaching skills.They think they know more about the English language than William Shakespeare.

Wasn't he the captain in Star Trek?

[impulse]

13 years in Asia and I have learned to appreciate what Ebonics is all about.

If we understand each other, who cares if the verbs don't get conjugated correctly?

Learned that one in China, where "I do it", "I will do it", and "I did it" are pretty much the same and the context tells you which one they mean. Makes meetings very draining and real good translators worth their weight in gold.

[super22k]

I like the Star Trek joke. You mean William Shaftner,of course. Stay happy.

[AhFarangJa]

I am always getting my mucking words fuddled

[AjarnMartin]

The past participle of the infinitive verb 'to shrink' in English is 'shrunk' so, in a present perfect question it should read: "Has your English vocabulary shrunk over the years". Of course, if you're American, they don't seem to bother too much with past participles which is a minefield for English students. A recent American English teacher wrote on his application to become a teacher - "we don't learn verb tenses in America"! Heaven help his students... :-(

[Jingthing]

The past participle of the infinitive verb 'to shrink' in English is 'shrunk' so, in a present perfect question it should read: "Has your English vocabulary shrunk over the years". Of course, if you're American, they don't seem to bother too much with past participles which is a minefield for English students. A recent American English teacher wrote on his application to become a teacher - "we don't learn verb tenses in America"! Heaven help his students... :-(

He lied.

[lucjoker]

My Tinglish is still ok

[candypants]

Has it shrank , shrunk or shrek even ?.....dunno , but I know of many native English speakers who seem to have adopted an awful pidgin speak that makes mr cringe !!!

Skink, Skunk, Skank.

I know which one is my favourite.

[muythai2013]

not sure I know what vocabulary means, not on my word list.

Think I will google it and add it to the list of words I have learned over the years.

[MrBrad]

I have been here long enough to have gone through different phases. There were years when little or no English was spoken by me. Later my brother commented that I had developed an accent. I guess I was clipping my syllables instead of slurring them.

After moving from Bangkok to Chiang Rai 6 years ago, I started writing a blog and rediscovered my native tongue. With my wife speaking such good English now, my Thai is beginning to suffer. Baby talk or pidgin English has never been an option, not even in Hawaii when it was the norm at school.

VillageFarang, you do write one of the best-composed blogs that I subscribe to. It's a joy to read your well thought-out paragraphs. Really, I appreciate your style.

That said, one of the best ways to keep our English alive is to read good books (or blogs). Time spent speaking improper (caveman or Tarzan) English does nobody any good. If you think about it, it's got to be extremely insulting to Thai girlfriends or wives. I really cannot understand why--even after they've been here for many years--expat men continue to use such non-standard English.

Now, about the location of language in the brain, however, one language does not squeeze out another. The fact is that your first language (L1) is stored in one place, and subsequent languages (L2, L3, etc.) are stored in a completely different area of the brain, This is actually a good thing should we be so unfortunate to suffer a stroke and lose our first language. It's very possible that the region of the brain containing L2, L3, etc. will be undamaged, and we can communicate using a language other than L1. With that in mind, we might think again about the importance of being able to communicate in a language other than English...like Thai, for example.

[attento]

Shrunk NOT shrank

His English vocabulary shrank over the years.

His English vocabulary has shrunk over the years.

Shrunk, shrank, shrink, shrinked, shrunken. My wife says "wash machine make t shirt grow small". I tried to explain shrink to her but it all got too hard because to her, all those 5 words mean the same, "grow small".

Can we accept negative growth?

[attento]

13 years in Asia and I have learned to appreciate what Ebonics is all about.

If we understand each other, who cares if the verbs don't get conjugated correctly?

Learned that one in China, where "I do it", "I will do it", and "I did it" are pretty much the same and the context tells you which one they mean. Makes meetings very draining and real good translators worth their weight in gold.

Is there a contradiction here? Surely a good translator will conjugate the verbs correctly. So, the competant translater does care, that's who, for one. Correct (=currently acceptable) use of a language is much more likely to reduce confusion and misunderstanding.

(p.s. I agree with the difficulties in learning and using Chinese)

Edited May 3, 2013 by attento