Word: basic
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...needs to work out with Great Britain an even more basic understanding. While Americans have worried over the resurgence of old-line British imperialism, the British anxiously want to know if the U.S. will develop and stand by a strong and intelligent policy of participation in world affairs...
...Language," says Smith, "is nothing more than a bunch of noises made by the face." Smith evolved a system which selects from every language some 115 basic words and phrases. The soldier can then pick up more words by talking to natives. Smith's records are accompanied by booklets so that record-listeners see what they hear. In the field, special service officers hold language lessons for groups of from 10 to 20 men, who hear each set of records a half-dozen times and repeat the alien phrases aloud...
Smith's records do more than make military operations easier. "One of the biggest things we have to lick in soldiers serving overseas," he explains, "is homesickness. If a soldier knows the basic phrases of a language, he'll get a smile instead of a blank stare, and he'll begin to feel that he 'belongs...
Semanticists have worked out a basic English (850 words) to teach to foreigners who want to learn to speak American. But Americans, who are not good linguists, have been offered no such simple introduction to other people's tongues. Let's Learn Spanish is designed to teach a basic Spanish. Its pedagogical method is a succession of conversational exchanges between an unmistakable American, Joe Bishop, and a Spanish-speaking friend, Pepe Obispo...
Sayre spent four months working out a usable basic Spanish and writing the script. He found that the average Mexican laborer has about 500 words at his command, a white-collar worker some 2,000. With some advice from Harvard's famed Semanticist Ivor Armstrong ("Basic English") Richards, he boiled the Spanish course down to a working vocabulary. This 13-week transcribed series is available to any radio station...