Although English is my first language, I realise I spend quite a lot of time looking up English words whilst doing research on the Internet. Worse still is I very rarely see that word again.
I spend my life in non-English speaking countries and have learnt to keep my spoken English to a basic level. Most people in Europe and the World can speak a “Basic English” and use in many ways and for many reasons. Over time I realised there were so many forms of spoken colloquial English, especially from watching movies with my German speaking Austrian wife. Understanding British English, American Business, US East & West coast, classic US college and various forms of African vernacular has turned me into a walking dictionary for others. But today a simple bit of historic research in Wikipedia has led me to open my dictionary multiple times for English words I have never heard of. Prorogued, aphorisms, vilipend, Interpellate, assiduous, cancatervate, yclept. I use Google Translate to hover over words in German and French to help me out, but in English I must actively go and look them up. If you look at the “Bible in Basic English”, BBE edition (maybe over simplified) it is interesting to note how little information is actually lost. “The BBE was translated by Professor S.H. Hooke using the standard 850 Basic English words. 100 words that were helpful to understand poetry were added along with 50 "Bible" words for a total of 1,000 words total. This version is effective in communicating the Bible to those with limited education or where English is a second language.” -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general?hl=en.
