Is vocabulary important?

Is vocabulary important?

My elementary school son is working hard on his studies right now, and he says he is constantly being told in his Japanese language classes that vocabulary is important.

It goes without saying that you should look up words you don't know in a dictionary to grasp their meaning, but you must also be able to create sentences using those words.

For example, if the word is "shibashiba" (often), you should be able to say something like, "I often mow the lawn in the garden."

Furthermore, he is told that he must be able to paraphrase a single word in as many ways as possible.

For instance, if the word is "arakajime" (in advance), you try paraphrasing it as "maemotte" (beforehand), "jizen ni" (prior to), or "sou naru koto o yoki shite" (anticipating that it will happen).

Since this is the level of discussion even for elementary school students, we adults must naturally think about it in the same way.

Look up the meanings of words you don't know and make them usable in your daily life. Try paraphrasing highly abstract words into other expressions.

That is how we must improve our vocabulary.

I imagine that those of us who write on note are facing the challenge of "vocabulary" every single day.

Sometimes, people offer advice saying that there is no need to force yourself to use difficult words, but whenever I see my son studying, I wonder if that is really okay.

Even if they are difficult words or expressions we are not used to, shouldn't we adult writers try to make them our own as much as possible?

It is true that writing containing expressions one is not used to can be difficult for the reader to read. The reader can immediately tell when you are forcing it.

However, most of us (= note users) are not getting paid to write documents, and since we have the note platform right in front of us, we should use it as a practice ground.

One might ask if there is even a "real performance" waiting after all that practice, but improving your vocabulary is certainly not a waste in life.

Instead of thinking that you shouldn't use difficult words, why don't we work hard together to improve our vocabulary with confidence?