New English Vocabulary Word Phenomenon

By Robby

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Improve Spoken English

Hi guys,

In today’s video I’m discussing the following phenomenon which occurs when you learn new English vocabulary: some obscure English word or phrase you’d NEVER heard before, suddenly starts appearing everywhere – in news articles, in radio and TV shows, and even English speakers around you start using this word… Despite you having had never noticed it before!

Is it weird or what?

Here’s a typical example: I had recently learnt a new English phrase from a guy who lives in Canada ‘in my book’ which means ‘in my opinion’. At the time I thought it might be a more regional expression so I didn’t even think of trying to use it in my own daily English conversations with other people at work.

And guess what? The very next day at work my Irish colleague used that expression when speaking with me!

I can swear I had NEVER heard any of my Irish work colleagues use this phrase during the four years I’ve been working with them, so how can it be explained?

Well, I have an explanation for that, my dear friend foreign English speaker, and you’re welcome to watch the video above to find out why this particular phenomenon might be happening!

Chat soon,

Robby 😉

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

 

English Harmony System

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

English Harmony System

  • Hi Sunny,

    I’m really flattered you’ve been listening to my podcast many times over, I really appreciate it!

    Now, speaking of understanding what I’m saying – I probably should get someone to script my recordings so that I can include the script in the blog post and you would be able to listen to the audio while following the script thus making sure your comprehension develops to its full potential.

    I mean – it’s 100 times more beneficial to your comprehension improvement to actually know EVERYTHING you’re hearing instead of trying to FIGURE things out for yourself!

    I’ve actually touched upon this subject in the following article: http://englishharmony.com/fast-english/ and I think it’s also applicable in this situation as well.

    So thanks a lot for pointing this out to me; from now on I’ll try and make sure I include a script with all videos and podcasts!

    Best Regards,

    Robby 😉

  • sunny Liu

    Hi Robby,
    I can’t say more thanks to you!

    well done! and I have downloaded your second audio file to my cell phone! I listened to it many times before i got sleep. This morning i found it is still on; i forgot to turn off my mp3 player! i could understand your main idea! but not details. is it because i could not speak proper sounds(linking, silent sounds, glottal stop etc.)?

  • Hi Sunny Liu,

    Just letting you know I’ve started adding podcasts onto my blog posts so from now on you’ll be getting both video and audio version of the same content and in case you can’t watch the video – the audio MP3 file is going to be there at your disposal!

    You may want to check out the latest blog post of mine where the podcast is at the very top: http://englishharmony.com/are-all-the-rest-bad/

    Regards,

    Robby

  • Hi Sunny Liu,

    The explanation is simple enough – in reality it’s not that you wouldn’t have heard or encountered the word in question previously; it’s just that it hasn’t registered with you at a conscious level yet!

    And then, when you start paying attention to that word, all of a sudden you start hearing it all over the place because your perception is heightened in relation to that particular word.

    Regards,

    Robby

  • sunny Liu

    Hi Robby,
    I have realized the situation, but how come it happens!
    would you kindly explain it to me? i could not watch your video here!

  • I said ‘ramifications’ which means ‘consequences’.

  • hercules

    an urban fox bites off a baby’s finger? you’ve managed to arouse my interest :D… what were you saying at 6:04 portification? and i think culling means to execute :O

  • You’re 100% right, those words just evade my perception; it doesn’t necessarily mean nobody hadn’t used them around me.

  • I think sometimes you have heard a certain word but you haven’t registered it properly. As soon as you learn that word, you notice it in other places because your brain is simply responding better to the new knowledge.