Word: basic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What's in a Name? In analyzing smells, Crocker sniffs for each basic component, like an orchestra conductor listening for specific instruments, then describes the total effect by numbers. Thus, the Crocker description of a rose is 6423, representing the relative strength of its fragrant, acid, burnt and caprylic components, respectively...
Whatever eventually happens to Basic English, Basic Chinese is a sensational success. Since 1930 it has enabled 46,000,000 Chinese, who otherwise might have stayed illiterate, to read & write. The man who put Basic Chinese across, lithe and lively James ("Jimmy") Yang Ch'u Yen lit momentarily last week in New York, Providence, Washington. Jimmy Yen moves fast: at 49 he has fomented an almost incredible cultural revolution, and hopes he has just begun...
Jimmy Yen is organizing postwar plans for China. To many a Chinese he is more important than generals or cabinet ministers. In any case, he speaks for the Ping-min Chiao-yu, the Mass Education Movement which he founded and directs, and which revolutionized Chinese education by using Basic Chinese...
...While Basic English with its 850 words (TIME, Sept. 20) is intended mainly for international communication, Basic Chinese (TIME, Oct. 4) is primarily for Chinese. It consists of 1,000 characters (words) most commonly used by plain people, selected from the 40,000-odd available characters. It can be learned in 96 hours from four little books. Chinese coolies and peasants (85% of the population) now need only bestir themselves a bit to become literate. Jimmy Yen sees to it that they stir increasingly...
...them. Then he called a mass meeting. When he told the coolies they could do what coolies had never done, only 40 agreed to take a lesson. After four months they could write a letter, read news, and soon the canteen was a nightly humbuzz of coolies studying Basic Chinese aloud. Jimmy went to Paris to show other Chinese camp agents what he had learned about teaching coolies...