You thought it was your friend, did you? You thought it wanted to HELP you?
Well you were wrong!
Your dictionary is out to GET you. It wants to see you fail so badly, it will do almost anything to stop you learning Italian.
If you really must give room in your home to one, don’t say I didn’t warn you. (And just be careful, OK?)
But if you’ll follow my advice, throw the damn thing right into the trash can this minute, and be grateful you didn’t get hurt worse. You’ll have had a lucky escape.
Believe me, your dictionary hates you
It’s true, I’m telling you! Just look at the evidence:
- dictionaries inveigle you with their usefulness, then when you’ve come to depend on them, you realise that you’re trapped, with no other way to understand meanings!
- they’ll trick you by providing multiple translations for almost any word you need, without telling you which is correct for your context. Then snigger behind your back when you get it wrong.
- a favourite ploy is to blind you with annotations and grammary stuff you can’t understand…
- they’ll tirelessly waste your time and stop you finishing anything you attempt: your desk will be littered with half-read articles, half-finished homework exercises, half-written e-mails…
- by pretending to help you, they’ll work to undermine your morale and erode your self-belief. Before long, you become convinced you’ll never understand anything in Italian or be able to express yourself fluently in the language
There IS another way
When you were a small child learning your native language, did you use a dictionary then? Did you need one to learn to understand your mother and father, your friends, your teacher? Did you keep one handy every time you switched on the TV or turned the pages of a picture book?
Well, did you?
Of course not! As a child, there was lots of stuff you didn’t understand (almost everything, probably), but you got by, right? Given a little time, and plenty of practice, you worked things out. You had a brain, and man, you used it.
Of course, that was BEFORE the dictionaries got to… I hope it’s not too late for you, I really do. Just throw the cursed thing out the window. Save yourself, while there’s still time!
(Like/Hate this post? Leave a comment. It’d be great to hear your views)
P.S. Just one week left to get our new self study e-book Italian Workout! B2 at half price (that’s just €9.99). Click here to visit the shop.
John Thomson says
Synchronicity or what!
I have just sent Daniel an e-mail entitled “how do Italians learn Italian” on this very theme
how a child progresses from “no like cabbage” probably “non piace cavolo” to
“mother I have told you already that I would not like the cabbage and peas”
“madre ho gia detto che non mi piacerebbero il cavolo e i piselli”
magical
John Thomson
Daniel says
You were my inspiration, John. But I’d thought I’d reply here, rather than to you personally. More fun!
John Thomson says
I agree with a previous comment, parallel texts might help
It is wonderful to see the interest this article has caused, well done Daniel.
My dictionary has not been put in the bin but I have moved it out to the garage to avoid temptation, of course Google translate is still on my machine!
John
Daniel says
Forgot to mention in the original article, Google Translate is the antichrist.
John Thomson says
oops
I agree it is not good for sentences, for example it does not know which ‘you’ is meant, but it is not too bad for single words like ‘alzare’ or ‘alzarsi’
Sergey Trofimov says
Hello!
I won’t throw my dictionary out of my window, neither in the trash basket. At least, at the moment. You are right, we have often problems by using the dictionaries, they often give us not the best solutions. You’re also right when you say, that in our childhood we didn’t use dictionaries. But we have had at that time another powerful help from our parents, our friends, our teachers… There was enough sources from which we could get new words and another information about our language. Now I’m an adult man, I live in a small Russian town and I try to learn Italian language. I’ve passed four or five times the whole course of Italian on busuu.com, but my vocabulary it still too poor. Now I’m trying to read some italian newspapers in Internet, for example, La Stampa. Of course, I meet there a lot of words that I don’t know. How can I learn them? How should I expand my vocabulary? I can’t materialise the words from the air! I see the only way now: to use the dictionary.
Could you offer me any alternative solution? Thank you!
Daniel says
Absolutely, I can offer you an alternative solution, Sergey!
First, why are you reading? To improve your Italian, right?
If you feel that that is best achieved by learning all the words typically used in La Stampa, well, I guess you’ll find a dictionary helpful. You’ll write down lists of the words you don’t know, and learn them presumably. Though, as hinted in the article, there’s no guarantee you’ll be “learning” the most useful meaning, or the connotation, or the grammar, or the pronunciation, or…
If, like me, you feel that your Italian will improve more naturally (and in a much more interesting way) by emersing yourself in the issues and stories of the moment, and by following the news as it evolves from day to day, then presumably you’ll be wanting to:
1. Stay motivated
and
2. Develop good, fast, reading habits
Stopping reading each time you come across an unknown word will have the very opposite effect, and over the medium term is likely to lead to you reading less, rather than more.
The consequence? You’ll learn fewer words with a dictionary, than if you just read.
Mostly I learn new words by guessing the meaning from the context. The more I read, the easier it gets. Just like when I was a kid.
And when I can’t guess? Well, then I just turn the page and find something else to read. Also just like when I was a kid.
Dictionaries are the devil! You read it here first!
(Though I do use one regularly when I’m WRITING in Italian…..)
Sieglind D'Arcy says
I had the same question as Sergey, so thank you for answering Daniel. I started reading in the way you suggest, but thought I was missing too much. Then I purchased Italian/English parallel texts but found if I got interested in the story I would read the English only….. So thanks, I will start again and not worry about the things I’m not learning and rejoice in the things that “click.”
Daniel says
You mention some good points, Sieglind, which prompt me to elaborate….
1. Reading in your own anguage is much easier obviously, so when trying to read in Italian it’s certain that we’re going to “suffer”, from the slowness, from the difficulty of it, from the unknown words, generally from feelings of unfamiliarity and inadequecy… In fact, learning to read in Italian is very similar to the process that we all went through as young children of learning to read in our own language. Remember what a pain that was?
2. The trick, then, is to focus on overcoming the “negative” feelings that arise from the difficulties you encounter, by focusing not on the thing that you are reading but on the benefits that you will gain in the medium term from being able to read better in a foreign Language.
Think of it like any medium term project: dieting, getting in shape, saving money for a special project, etc. Learning to read in Italian brings little joy as you take the first steps, but is hugely worthwhile as your ability improves…
Which, more or less, is why I argue that you should focus on what you CAN understand, rather than on what you can’t (yet) decipher.
Hope that helps!
By the way, I learnt Italian ONLY by reading. I’ve never done a course.
Mary Kieran says
So throw out the dictionary, and then what…? GO OUT AND CREATE YOUR OWN ITALIAN LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE, WHEREVER YOU ARE…
I gather those interested in speaking Italian in a coffee shop in California each Friday afternoon. We start speaking Italian hit or miss with people of all levels. So far, I am the best speaker, until a real Italian shows up. No, I am not a native Italian speaker, but my heart became Italian with practice of the language and that makes up for a lot…
I continue to study the language and give myself the gift of the Italian language, culture, and attitude of la dolce vita on a daily basis. This lifestyle has attracted many interactions with native Italian speakers, including meeting and befriending an Italian actress, being invited to see Italian movies at Italian cultural centers, having espresso and conversing with wealthy Italians living in Malibu, etc…
EVERYONE loves Italian and the Italian culture. Life is short! Give yourself a big helping of it TODAY!
Daniel says
Sounds like good advice, Mary. After all, sometimes life and Language are so closely bound as to be indistinguishable. People seem to think that one day they’ll be “finished” with Learning a Language, but of course it’s not like that, is it?
Harriet Smith says
No, you are wrong. Dictionaries are an essential tool. Young children learn their native language naturally by listening to those around them. After the age of 20 (!) it becomes increasingly difficult to learn a new language – look at immigrant families: the children usually grow up sounding like native speakers, but the parents will almost always have an accent and some grammatical problems. Once you are an an adult, it is much more difficult to “hear” the sounds of a foreign language without extra effort.
In learning, it is important to listen, talk and read without referring to a dictionary at every turn, but an understanding of comparative grammar (i.e. the main differences between your language and Italian) and a good dictionary (for example Zanichelli’s Raggazzini/Biagi concise) are essential tools, especially if you want to write. As you said, a dictionary may give several options for the same word: the trick is then to check the Italian to English translation of the word you have chosen, often this will give you a better idea of the various meanings.
What more can I say – buona fortuna, buon coraggio!
Daniel says
Welcome Harriet.
So let’s say I’m wrong. We’ll give each immigrant family a dictionary and sit back and observe how their language skills soar to the level of educated native speakers, like you and I.
Right?
Oh, and they’ll have great accents too.
Yes, we agree that a dictionary is a useful tool for writing. But who writes? Most of my teacher colleagues write only rarely, and hardly ever for publication.
The thing about integrating into a new language community (as I am gradually doing in Italy, and as per your example above) is that you have to have a motivation to do it.
And given that most adults are NOT language graduates with developed research skills, well I say, chuck that dictionary in the trash can and watch TV instead.
My ex-wife, for example. Came to the UK (from Turkey) with virtually zero English. Spent 6 months watching soap operas, then went out and got a job!
A dictionary would certainly not have helped.
Andy Miller says
Hi Daniel
I agree, but only up to a point.
Yes it’s important to develop the skill of working out what words mean from the context, or simply concentrating on the main points. And there’s nothing worse than being hobbled by the dictionary.
But there are times when it is important to understand what a word means.
A good bilingual dictionary should give examples of how a word is used.
When I was learning French we were advised to get a good monolingual dictionary. I think it was very good advice.
You don’t have to invest a fortune in a Zanicelli or a Treccani – my favourite dictionary is the Sabatini-Coletti available online via dizionari.corriere.it
A
Daniel says
Heresy!
No, you’re right Andy, really… There ARE times when you need to look something up. But, most language learners assume that this is “most of the time”, whereas you and I understand that dictionaries are usually a distraction, but at times essential.
By the way, let me tell you about “Daniel’s Dictionary Test”. Try it on the one you’ve recommended.
What you do is think of the absolutely WORST word you know in Italian (or English, if you’re in the market for a bi-lingual)… And look it up!
If the dictionary you’re evaluating has an entry for this “brutta parola”, and better still, a credible entry, well, you’ll know you have a tool you can trust.
If not, not.
Of course, this test only works if you actually KNOW the meaning of the worst word you know…
bill edwards says
Has no one ever consulted the online dictionary http://wordreference.com ? Although I still love my Sansoni for quick reference when I more or less know what I’m doing, the online wordreference is pretty good to show you how words are used, sometimes with a bit of back referencing. The free online Garzanti can be good as a thesaurus – all you have to do is sign up.
Daniel says
Yes, in fact it’s the only dictionary I use, dictionaries being, as you know, the devil.
When I was translating (given it up now, thank God), it was often the only place which could help me resolve the real conundrums. But the “forums” more than the definitions themselves, though those are fine too.
You can be pretty sure that if you have a real bugger of a translation problem, there’ll be someone that will have had the same issue and will have asked a question about it in the wordreference.com forums… The forum comments don’t always resolve the issue, but at least it helps to know that someone else was in the same boat.
Lucia says
I love dictionaries, especially the new APP versions for smartphones! I have something like 10 or 12 dictionary app on my Sony Experia! I have even an arabic one …. but I can’t speak this language!
I try a new one everyday, but then I stick on the only trusted one : wordreference!
However, I agree, that you can’t hold a book on one hand and a dictionary on the other, while you’re on the bus or in the tube! Even though you’re a multi-tasking person, like me! If, instead, you’re reading an ebook it’s worth to have the text you’re reading and an integrated dictionary that might help or not.
For example : is INTEGRATED the right word? I just looked it up on wordreference! Let me know!
Moira Pool says
Daniel, Thank you for a very useful and informative email as ever full of interesting stuff.
I am just too busy trying to finish my dissertation to do much else but I was jolted out of my world by your rhetoric on dictionaries. They are my lifeblood at present. Where would I be without Tracccani?
I agree being in Italy would be a whole heap better than relying on dictionaries for spelling, for explanations and synonyms but they do provide a useful function.
Keep up the rhetoric it is light relief from checking out Italian immigration legislation!
Moira