Monday, April 11, 2011

Word-power, How to Develop It/Google Books




Title Word-power, How to Develop It
Author Grenville Kleiser
Publisher Funk & Wagnalls company, 1920
Length 172 pages
Click here.

13 comments:

Eva said...

Does the author give an age for the book? I couldn't find one.

Alexandra said...

Funk & Wagnalls company, 1920.

Eva said...

I guess, my English wasn't good enough here: I meant, what age is this book aimed at? You put it with middle and high school, but does the author recommend it for a certain grade?

Alexandra said...

The author doesn't say. My best guess is this was written for anyone( not specifically young students) who is wanting to improve their word power.

Your English is better than mine! Your punctuation and sentence structure is beautiful. Did you study English at the university?

Eva said...

Thank you, Alexandra. I had English in school (grades 5-13), spent a year as an exchange student in Canada, studied English at the university, and then came here. I know that I still make mistakes, my husband corrects me sometimes, but I correct his German :-).

My English teacher in grade 8 once had me come up in front of the class and handed back an exam to me. He told the class that I hadn't done very well and commented on my bad spelling of "beautiful." He said that somebody who couldn't spell that word would never learn English! Maybe I should show him that he was wrong!

Alexandra said...

How harsh of your teacher! It's not the easiest language to learn with all the irregularities, and now so much contemporary slang has entered everyday English. I'm sure you've noticed how many use colloquial English oftentimes with incorrect grammar. It's so commonplace these days that I think the incorrect grammar will become the norm, changing our language! Do you have this in Germany?

Eva said...

In German it's not so much the grammar that is changing but the vocabulary! There are so many English words now in German. I always avoid them because it hurts my ears when I hear them mixed in with German. Germans tend to take words from other languages and make them their own. During Napoleon's occupation many French words entered German.
There are also so many dialects in Germany with own grammatical rules that it's hard to notice grammatical changes overall. Many people don't speak "high German." Several years ago there was an official reform that changed some of the spelling rules in German. This caused a big upheaval, many people refused to follow the new rules. Several years later some of the new rules were changed back to the old ones, but some were kept. In my family my parents and most of my five siblings have changed to the new way, one of my brothers and I haven't. So even though this was an offical change, people haven't always accepted it.

Alexandra said...

That's very confusing when there are changes like that - I can understand the discontent!

My bi-lingual dad speaks "high German", but then he is in his 70's and an old fashioned conservative. His grandfather was a German immigrant(Philadelphia, Pa.). He was from the Mainz area. My mother's side was from the Alsace region. My grandfather spoke with a trace of a German accent even though he was born in the U.S..

I should really learn German, shouldn't I! It's a part of my heritage.

Eva said...

You really should, Alexandra! Try "The Learnables." We're using them for French.

Eva said...

One more thought, have you ever asked your father to teach you now?

Alexandra said...

We'll look into "The Learnables". Sadly, my father is very elderly and unable to teach me. I could do it myself if I were motivated and could find the energy. I'm a fast learner, but I suffer from exhaustion(origin unknown other than advanced age).

Eva said...

I'm sorry to hear about your exhaustion. Have you ever heard about "The Schwarzbein Principle"? Just google it at amazon and you'll get results back from Dr. Schwarzbein, who has written books on diet and health. My library has most of her books. I'm rereading her books and find them very good. Diet plays a vital role in one's health.

Alexandra said...

It certainly can't hurt - I've had degrees of it all my life. My mother is the same way even though medically we are good. My sister is just the opposite - energy like you wouldn't believe!