simple Wikipedia
Oct. 9th, 2005 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslThe language that most people can speak finally has a Wikipedia. This language...
... is not English
... is not Chinese
... is not Spanish
it's bad English. Well, no, actually the Wikipedia is in Simple English.
Reading it a little, it seems like the Simple Wikipedia has articles written for 12-year-old fluent English speakers... or your average American adult. (the average publication is more complex than that because of a selection effect: since most things that get written are targeted at people who read. People who don't read much don't have many publications targeted at them.)
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I have been enjoying teaching my housemate tricks about English pronunciation (like "-ate" is [ejt] when a verb and [/\t] when a noun). His main problem is that he pronounces words as they are written.
Solution: read less! No, actually, we could print English words in a grey-and-black combination, like "worold".
Someone should publish books to help people correct systematic mistakes. I think I've seen one such book in Brazil, for Brazilians learning English.
I could be improving my Spanish instead, if we spoke Spanish at the apartment, but I think that having to switch between 3 languages in everyday life is already enough for me. I keep Spanish strictly for the purposes of fun.
... is not English
... is not Chinese
... is not Spanish
it's bad English. Well, no, actually the Wikipedia is in Simple English.
Reading it a little, it seems like the Simple Wikipedia has articles written for 12-year-old fluent English speakers... or your average American adult. (the average publication is more complex than that because of a selection effect: since most things that get written are targeted at people who read. People who don't read much don't have many publications targeted at them.)
---
I have been enjoying teaching my housemate tricks about English pronunciation (like "-ate" is [ejt] when a verb and [/\t] when a noun). His main problem is that he pronounces words as they are written.
Solution: read less! No, actually, we could print English words in a grey-and-black combination, like "worold".
Someone should publish books to help people correct systematic mistakes. I think I've seen one such book in Brazil, for Brazilians learning English.
I could be improving my Spanish instead, if we spoke Spanish at the apartment, but I think that having to switch between 3 languages in everyday life is already enough for me. I keep Spanish strictly for the purposes of fun.