Learning English used to mean stashing new words to memory, groking usage and
grammar, and acing exams. The last came from the first two efforts and my life's
dreams, in turn, were built on top of the exams. Reading anything other than
textbooks was more for amusement or, once out of school, for acquiring practical
knowledge and skills.
Reading a dictionary might have occasionally crossed my mind but the imagined
dire boredom felt so daunting that I never attempted. I had better things do,
I told myself, and going through that ordeal was nothing but for bragging.
Every few months there came an urge to expand vocabulary and over the years, I
did go through a couple of books with the word dictionary in the titles, e.g.,
The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers and Longman's American Idioms
Dictionary. In the end, however, I doubt I gained much more than entertainment.
It was not until I was 46 years old and had collected enough inspiration from
the likes of Ammon Shea, Andreas Kluth, and Malcolm X, that I decided to read a
dictionary. It reminded me of St. Augstine's prayers at different stages of his
life. (First, "God, make me pure but not now," then, "God, make me pure but not
entirely," and at last, "God, please make me pure.")
I forgave myself when I forgot an entry word, because its definitions and examples
that I was copying down could be more interesting. For example, to understand the
4th meaning of the word 'dip,'
To form (a candle) by repeatedly immersing a wick in melted wax or tallow.
I had to look up 'wick,' which was colorful in its own right, and 'tallow' which
led to 'suet.' I had never met this meaning of dip in the wild and doubted I ever
would. But from this short definition, I just learnt how to make a candle and with
what and Warwick, the name of the neighborhood down the road, would never sound
the same again.
Even if there is nothing interesting, simple repetition has its own virtues. For
one thing, when something bothers me regularly, I have to fix the cause. For
example, I was often troubled by the lack of articles in front of nouns, such as
the 'aircraft' in
Restricted airspace for the passage of aircraft.
from the definition of 'corridor,' and the 'muscle' in
Muscle is a contractile tissue.
as an example usage of 'contractile.' I thought 'a' and 'an' should be inserted
in front of the two words, respectively, or the plurals should be used, when talking
about things in general. Native English speakers were of no help here as they
simply knew the unexplainable. I ended up buying and reading a usage book for a
satisfying answer.
Meanwhile, as my reading progressed, I met the word aircraft again in the 5th
definition of 'director'
An electronic device that continually calculates and displays information
used for firing weapons at moving targets, such as missiles or aircraft.
and was puzzled by the same question, I couldn't bear it and finally looked aircraft
up and noticed that the plural is the same word! I sure won't forget that soon.
