I am Learning English

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.