10,000 Brilliant Ideas

I think part of the secret of learning a language must be in your brain believing you are in a world where that language is sincerely spoken. When you learn french in an american classroom, it's kind of a game. And when someone says foch, you laugh. But when you're in France your brain switches on its learn-to-survive mechanism and when someone says foch you think seal. I would like to see an experiment where a mini school is constructed in the US where inside it is 100% mini France. Maybe there's a long dark tunnel to get there which serves as a psychological trick to make the mind switch. On the other end of the tunnel is France with its cafes and streets and baguettes and everything. The teachers play the roles of vendor or cop or whatever and students are free to discuss anything with them. The cop makes sure no english is spoken there with an abruptness that also causes a psychological change and makes the brain turn off English. When a kid especially a young kid ent...

Like a phrase dictionary, but expanded, with thoughts and expressions. For example, if I wanted to say "will he make it?" I could look it up under W and it would tell me how to express this thought in the language. This may have to be electronic to accomodate the size which may make it like an on-line translator, but with clarification and explanation inbetween.

This dictionary reads more like a novel than a dictionary. It's for people learning a new language and want to beef up on vocab. The text is fun and memorable to aid the learning process and starts with the most important words and goes to the less important words. (Important meaning generally useful.) This way you don't waste your time on words you won't need for a while and you don't accidentally use a word that's far too deep or dated like 'loam' which means fertile soil (that one's at the back of the book.)