Stupid question; do you use dictionary when reading a novel and find a word you don’t understand?

[BlackKnightX]

English is not my first language, but at least I think I’m fluent in the language to some extent (giving that I can carry on with any kind of conversations and I can tell a story, no problem).

Thing is, when I read a novel from professional writer—the difficult book with a lot of technical terms—I find it hard to follow the story with a lot of distractions (the word I don’t understand). So oftentimes I have to go back and forth between the book and dictionary, and it breaks the flow and immersion.

Though, I don’t always read this way. I remember the first time I taught myself to read in English, I just went through the book without the help of dictionary. There were a lot of words I didn’t understand back then, but I just ignored them and kept moving, trying my best to understand the story from the context. And somehow after some time passed, I actually leaned a lot that way.

But now, I want to read harder stuffs and learn faster, so I read with dictionary by my side. Every time I see the words I don’t understand, I‘d look up the meaning right away and then carry on along the story until I come across a new word again and on and on…

But, like I said, this breaks the flow and immersion.

So I want to know how you guys read. When you come across the words you don’t understand—like the technical terms and jargons and stuffs like that—do you always look up for their meanings or do you just guess them by the context?

Please bless me with your insight. Thanks in advance~ ??

 

[Kilolo]

I always have my wordweb app at the ready (for either laptop or phone since the app support both platform).

and it never really breaks the flow or immersion for me, most probably because i'm a slow reader to begin with, so i could still following things even i kept switching my attention.

 

[greyblob]

I use it all the time. google books has it. most reading apps should have one too. though for physical books it'd be a hassle.

 

[Nane]

I'm also not a native speaker and often use Google translate when I'm reading English works. But I usually read e-books, not paper copies, so can't really say I use an actual physical dictionary on the side.
I understand the struggle though. Sometimes I get the feeling I know the meaning from the context, but when I check the actual definition, I'm far off.

 

[BlackKnightX]

I use it all the time. google books has it. most reading apps should have one too.

View attachment 10517

Yep, that’s what I’m using as well. But like I said, after repeatedly doing this for awhile, it breaks the immersion quite a bit and gets really tiring. Or maybe that’s quite natural even to native speaker?

 

[gogo7966]

as i know all words in the english language: no

 

[BlackKnightX]

as i know all words in the english language: no

How???

 

[gogo7966]

How???

i'm just that good

 

[BlackKnightX]

i'm just that good

Huh..

 

[greyblob]

Yep, that’s what I’m using as well. But like I said, after repeatedly doing this for awhile, it breaks the immersion quite a bit and gets really tiring. Or maybe that’s quite natural even to native speaker?

wouldn't know - not a native speaker. it depends on what you're reading tbh. some books have too many/too specific words than require constant checking, but most don't. and you don't have to look up every word unless you want to. often enough you can just gleam the meaning from the sentence alone. but frankly, holding down my finger for 1 second doesn't bother me nor break my immersion.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Nope. No need to do that. (As I look them all up after I finished reading)

 

[BlackKnightX]

Nope. No need to do that. (As I look them all up after I finished reading)

I heard some people do that as well, but what if you don’t understand the story? Do you just go on with it?

 

[ElijahRyne]

English is not my first language, but at least I think I’m fluent in the language to some extent (giving that I can carry on with any kind of conversations and I can tell a story, no problem).

Thing is, when I read a novel from professional writer—the difficult book with a lot of technical terms—I find it hard to follow the story with a lot of distractions (the word I don’t understand). So oftentimes I have to go back and forth between the book and dictionary, and it breaks the flow and immersion.

Though, I don’t always read this way. I remember the first time I taught myself to read in English, I just went through the book without the help of dictionary. There were a lot of words I didn’t understand back then, but I just ignored them and kept moving, trying my best to understand the story from the context. And somehow after some time passed, I actually leaned a lot that way.

But now, I want to read harder stuffs and learn faster, so I read with dictionary by my side. Every time I see the words I don’t understand, I‘d look up the meaning right away and then carry on along the story until I come across a new word again and on and on…

But, like I said, this breaks the flow and immersion.

So I want to know how you guys read. When you come across the words you don’t understand—like the technical terms and jargons and stuffs like that—do you always look up for their meanings or do you just guess them by the context?

Please bless me with your insight. Thanks in advance~ ??

Sometimes it just happens, but often times you can use the words surrounding it to figure out the meaning. You can also use things like prefixes and suffixes to narrow down what the word is.

For me when I don’t know a word, it depends… If I can’t use context clues to figure out the word, then I google it.

 

[NikkuNii]

I use google :)