How many words do you need for B2? - Steve Kaufmann & the Power of Reading

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[asbest]

Lots of people don't understand Steve when he talks that you need 15 or 30 thousand words. Yes, you need 5 000, but when Steve says that you need 15 000 he considers "Be - was/were - been" and etc as 4 different words. For example "Run, ran, running, runs" are different words, if you consider it, you need 15-30 thousand words, but lots of people don't consider them as different words and in this case, you need 5 000 words.

[storylearning]

Steve has an amazing ability to get to the essence of difficult topics in a concise, articulate way. Love this.

[inaciojulio]

I really like Jan's accent. You can notice that he's not native in english, but has a really good pronunciation. The level I would like to achieve.

[realisticthinking]

Even though Steve is not a professional of the linguistic field, he is highly respected everywhere. I totally agree with him.

[EdgarES]

I have two conversation teachers and they have said my level is intermediate. Buy I don't believe it. I need to improve my English and I did a test yesterday and it showed me I have 3.400 words.
I'm not worried about "to get in the intermediate level". I'm worried about to learn every single day.
Anyway, I'm really happy because I have been studying English just for two years.

[disappointedenglishman]

Great video, but Steve focused on "words" and claimed there are more words in Russian, but really the focus should be on "lemmas". 10, 000 lemmas in any language is enough for normal proficiency. The Russian Learners Frequency Dictionary has 10, 000 lemmeas, and the introduction states that anything over that occurs 8 times or less per 1 million words, and so is basically not worth learning.

[Blondesax]

Yeah, I don't always feel like I have this bubbling wealth of words to draw from if I'm just talking to myself in the target language, but the minute I get in front of people and get asked specific questions, the words I need show up way more often (but not always), and I think it's just due to a lot of exposure in listening and reading. It's a slow grind, and it sometimes feels like there isn't progress, but keeping at it yields results in the long term.

[op-force]

Kaufman speaks liake a mediterranean people, the way he moves his hands, the way he emphasizes words etc lol

[ant]

In Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, the Abbe Faria tells Dantes, "I find that 1000 words in a language is sufficient, for essential requirements".

[hamidparck]

Je pense un message pour que je vois parler de vous que j'ai pas donné tu vas parler avec un homme stars qui va rester avec vous c'est lui qui va marcher le type c'est lui qui voit accepté que je veux retrouver pour toi et pour tout le monde si vous avez un drapeau ça que je vois donner alarme rentrer à n'importe vidéo que je vois que je dois contacter pour que je voie connais parce que toujours qu'il va rentrer avec un homme ou une femme qu'il va accepter qu'il n'accepte pas l'homme

[asm-exjw]

No way you need 15k words to get to B2, 15k is on average the amount of words C1 / C2 speakers know.

[PassionforDreaming]

Getting to B2 in Korean has been a lot more difficult than getting to B2 in French and Portuguese because I don't really have prior knowledge of any language like Korean. I studied Spanish before studying French and Portuguese. It's also difficult to memorize all that vocabulary in Korean. I'm not going to stop working on it though (:

[honslo]

It greatly depends on definiton of "a word", but 15 thousand for B2 seems appropriate. It is also important to realize that the difference between C1 and C2 is not based on number of words already, but rather on elegance of expression, factual knowledge of the environment where the language is spoken and various rhetorical figures, like number of idioms, collocations, proverbs etc.

[cloeye]

Steve is extremely honest about language learning and how he approaches it as someone that has worn 16 languages or more to different degrees of proficiency. I enjoy listening to what he has to say because he’s been there and done that already while the rest of us are still trying to go forward within our own language learning urine. He also is a very positive person that enjoys the process and doesn’t rush it. He’s willing each language situation in a clear and objective way. He’s also a positive person that loves learning languages and sharing his knowledge of language learning with the world and his own way. There should be more people in the world like him out there. He’s a true inspiration and language learners Who enjoy the process and the journey of learning languages regardless of their background, culture, disability, gender, economic status, education status etc. He’s a true language aficionado. Keep up the good work Steve. This was a great interview.

[MrKarlozz]

What are these two guys on about? The word samples in a B2 test in English are derived from the 3, 500 most frequent word families, 4, 500 at C1, and around 5, 000-5, 400 at C2.
15, 000 words? Even the average native speaker don't know that many words in his/her own language. These guys are crazy

[misscamay]

it is more important to learn phrases/sentences than just learning words in isolation... you may understand but you won’t be able to communicate if you just learn/memorize words alone

[ceciliaamaral]

I was so happy with my 4.000 words before that video... lol

[HealthySkepticism]

As a native English speaker I certainly felt my vocabulary stagnated all the years I was not reading. After I started the habit of reading I now effortlessly use new words in conversation and writing. In general articulating myself is easier.

[wingedhussar]

lol, 15, 000 words but Steve considers every word from a separate word... how many lexemes are that? maybe 3, 000? English is certainly not a language with much inflection, but if we consider the fact that every English verb has at least 4 forms (cook, cooks, cooked, cooking), we can say that the total number of words you need to know in order to have a B2 level should be much lower

[carlosochoa]

I see some people panic here. Steve's counting is different. In my experience you need 5-6 000 dictionary headwords for a strong B2. So not to worry. If you do a 300 page Collins pocket dictionary you can reach a (lower) advanced level.