The Opposite of The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Quite simply, the Dunning-Kruger effect is a phenomenon stating that the less one knows the more they think they know. In essence, if you only know a little bit about a topic, then since that is all you know, and that amount is relatively small, then it appears as if you know the entire topic. Once you start learning more about that same topic, and realize there is a lot more to know than what you originally thought, you start to see how complex the topic is, and how little you knew beforehand.

Welcome to learning Hebrew!

I've been learning Hebrew since the age of five, and this has given me a relative advantage and leverage point with my current studies. While some Lone Soldiers come in barely being able to speak the language, I have a base that I currently just need to build on.

At the end of the day my Hebrew is at a level that can get me around from day to day. I still need to work on speaking, and joining in on a fast-paced native Hebrew speaking conversation is not a level I am at just yet. However, since I have a lot of the day-to-day words down, many of the words I've been learning seem to be very niche. I have gotten to a point where the more I know, the less I think I know. As I'm learning new words every day, I then come into class the following day and discover a list of a million more words I've never seen before. I feel like I know less even while I'm improving every day.

So, as an example, here are some pretty niche Hebrew words I've learned during the past month in Ulpan, words that I rarely even use in english.

חרסינה -Porcelain

הדברה -Pesticide

מופשט -Abstract

נתון -Datum

מזיקים -Pests

מפונק -Spoiled

קרום -Crust of milk on top of drink

צמרת -Top of tree

קמצן -Stingy