Build English Vocabulary

MSN's Encarta is bundled with my MS Word 2003 as the de facto dictionary. The Encarta website contains many useful articles and some funny quizzes. Don't try the President Bush's English Quiz, though. The links I tried went to an empty page. Oh, wait! Maybe that's the joke.

All kidding aside, I think "Ten Tips to Build English Vocabulary" is quite useful. Strategies to help memorize new words include:

• choose words you're interested in
• associate a color with each word
• use the words in your imagination
• write pieces using new words
• relate a picture to a word

It sounds a lot like advice for learning people's names--the relationships and use. Repetition is a powerful learning device. When I was learning a larger vocabulary, I bored people silly using the new polysyllabic terminology (big words) in conversations until they were cemented in my mind. The words, not people.

Speaking of MS Word, a client sent me documents in the newer .docx format. I dutifully downloaded and installed the Microsoft converters for my software version. Then I opened the client files. It worked--not so good. The process is like gestating elephants, long and difficult, at least for the computer. The results warn of format and permissions changes. I could not extract photos, at least not easily, and separate them from the documents. It's either time for me to upgrade or remember to start asking for files to be converted to my preferred format. Let's see, who's the parent here? No, scratch that. Who is in charge? What would you do or expect?