I was born and brought up in a purely Assamese society and
so we rarely get to hear someone speaking English. If somehow we get a chance,
we consider him very knowledgeable. We the friends shared a joke and the joke
goes like this........
First Friend: I am lucky not to born in England.
Second Friend: Why?
First Friend: I don't know how to speak English.
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
The days are gone and when I first admitted to a boarding
school, my father handed me with an Anglo-Assamese dictionary, the book which helped
me to learn English. It was a bit difficult to find out meanings unless first I
get to know the English word. As for example, I cannot make out the meaning of 'MADHURIAM' unless I know the English word first, i.e. Guava. But gradually I was
accustomed to using dictionary and when I was little good to speak few
sentences with mild fluency, I thought of buying a dictionary where the meaning
is explained in English. i.e. an English to English dictionary. I have little
trouble in selecting one and I end up in buying none though I was in need of it
for my studies. Finally in the Year 2001 I purchased my dictionary, the Oxford
Advanced Learner's Dictionary. My dictionary was Sixth Edition edited by Sally
Wehmeier and the phonetics was edited by Michael Ashby, reprinted in the year
2000. The dictionary was reprinted in the Oxford University Press.
THE APPEARANCE:
The book is quite big in a blue cover page with a yellow and
red stripe passing across the phase. The wavy patch makes the book gorgeous to
look and the blue colour fades to the bottom. The word Oxford in bold capital
letters is underlined with a yellow line and below it is written Advanced
Learner's Dictionary. All the words utilises a single line and the word
dictionary is written in capital letters again. In my copy of book at the
bottom corner of the face is written two special tags. The first reads
"The world's best-selling learner's dictionary" and the second tag
reads “New for 2000" which may mean that the dictionary was reprinted with
value addition in the year 2000.
In my small city a book fair was organized like every year
by the book sellers association and a number of book shops came in to display their
collection from across India. I travelled around 200 km to attend the fair and
to purchase few books. I am regular to that annual fair and I save at least
3000 Indian Rupee to purchase my requirements. My selections include some
science magazines, few Novels and one of good book if my budget covers. In the
cold months of 2001, I had gone with the Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary
and I still consider it my precious buy.
My edition of the dictionary contains a special warning
which reads "This book must not be sold outside India, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Nepal and Sri Lanka. That means the book is special shipped for these Asian
countries. The book contains a logo on the back page" THE DICTIONARY YOU
CAN TRUST" and yes I too feel it as a dictionary that I can trust on. My
edition is enriched with 4,500 new words and meanings giving an up-to-date
picture of the language and 80,000 references giving excellent coverage of
British and American English.
THE OXFORD GUARANTEE:
The back cover of the dictionary covers the guarantee. The
guarantee is that the dictionary is based on classroom research, Oxford Corpus
Collection, British National Corpus, written by teachers and rigorously
checked.
This type of guarantees assures buyers of good value for
their money.
THE DICTIONARY MAIN:
The dictionary uses some abbreviations and grammar labels
which are given on the very first page. It is followed by the symbols used in
the dictionary and then labels, key to verb patterns, as we go inside of the
book, the name changes a little. In the inner page along with the name there is
an addition of the words "of current English" by A S Hornby.
HISTORY ABOUT THE DICTIONARY:
The dictionary was first published in the year 1948(12
impressions) followed by reprints in the year 1963, 1974, 1989, 1995 and in the
year 2000. I don't have data regarding reprints of 2000 or the sixth edition.
It is printed in the Oxford University Press which is a department of the
University of Oxford. Oxford and Oxford English are registered trademarks of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries. Luckily India
is one among them to get the honour of printing for Oxford University.
CONTENTS:
Preface:
The preface gives the names of the advisory board and that
comprise of Dr. Keith Brown, Ms Moira Runcle, Dr. Norman Whitney, Dr. Alan
Cruse, Prof. Gabriele Stein and Prof. Henry Widdowson. The Preface also
includes the names of the chief editor Sally Wehmeier, editors jointly Joanna
Florio and Dilys Parkinson, senior editor Diana Lea and phonetics editor
Michael Ashby. Then there is a brief description about the evolution of the
Dictionary by A S Hornby and their Golden Jubilee celebration.
Key to dictionary entries:
This section guides a new user how to get the meanings and
other essential findings like phonetics, grammatical support etc. This section
is quite elaborate and unless you need something special, you won't be
referring the section. There even guidance for using the words and building
vocabulary apart from finding the meaning.
Understanding definition:
This section defines the use of symbols frequently used and
some of the important features like describing objects and substances, food, people,
organizations, actions, situations and ideas. If we go in detail of these for
once, we won't be finding many difficulties in rest of our life while using the
dictionary. But, this is human nature to ignore these small things as they
presume to have that basic knowledge.
Numbers:
In this section there is a description about the numbers and
some of the specific numbers which are specifically used in some specific
situations.
Symbols:
This section describes the various symbols or notations that
are used in describing a word and their meaning and use.
The Dictionary contains 1508 pages, quite a huge number of pages
to contain quite a good amount of words difficult enough to memorise. Apart
from the regular pages, i.e. 1508 pages for word and meaning, there are some
additional pages for various topics, pictures, colour illustrations, language
study and appendices. The inside of the front cover contains abbreviations,
symbols and labels used in the dictionary, key to verb patterns. The inside of
the back cover contains pronunciation and phonetic symbols which are used in
the dictionary.
MY EXPERIENCE:
After my purchase, I regularly use the dictionary for
references. As I have limited vocabulary, it is my helping hand in compiling
something in English. Even I use to refer the dictionary when I go for writing
a review to the Ciao Community. I maintain a blog in one of the Indian Social
Networking site and for my writings over there; I never go without the
dictionary. The dictionary not only helped me in increasing my vocabulary but
also helped to learn a lot of grammar, phonetics, phrases, names of fruits,
vegetables, flowers, etc. Moreover, it helped me in writing informal letters,
faxes, memos and e-mails, formal letters, writing a CV or resume and I enriched
myself with some new words which have recently been incorporated.
BOTTOMLINE:
Learning is a continuous process and when we continue this
process we get to know that there are still more and more things we have to
learn in this world. So, a dictionary like advanced learner's from Oxford not
only provides you with the exact meaning but also helps you to understand about
the (new)word better is worth keeping in our personal book library. It reminds
us that we have yet to learn many things.
