The Words we Need

Instead of giving us the words we need, bilingual dictionaries include words we don't know in either language, and thus we will never use, or obsolete vocabulary belonging to an era gone (and lost forever) like "trébedes", trivets, "ordenancista", martinet, and such... Of course this is because the team of compilers copy old dictionaries or, worse still, they think the value of a wordbook rests on its thickness -the fatter, the better-, but, of course, this is not so. And the team does not address itself to solving problems like "tutear", "amiguismo"... but include a word in English, but not in Spanish and so on. The most modern dictionaries put in irrelevant information alien to a book of this nature, like the history of certain customs (Halloween, boxing day) which properly belong elsewhere. I'll go into this again in a few days.

Children and questions

Children are for ever asking questions... And then one day, they start giving answers to parents' questions... Hm. Of course, of course....

My workplace

I am a team of one. I compile my dictionaries wherever and whenever I can. The world is my workplace. Here I am at Atocha train station in Madrid, holding one of my books.

On Language and Culture: October 2006

On Language and Culture: October 2006
Did you know that the Velázquez Sp. and Eng. dictionary was originally published in 1852? And it's still being sold... And the Martinez Amador, first published in 1925 is still in bookstores... Ditto for the Cuyás and Williams... They are all basically worthless now. So beware of bilingual dictionaries!! Make sure you find the first date of publication before putting your money on the counter.

On Language and Culture

Well, I guess I am hooked, finally... and have decided to launch my ideas on the internet. Ideas about language and culture, English and Spanish. We'll see... Veremos. Todo se andará.