O. Thyen

Before the onset of COVID-19, I was tutoring at the library (adult literacy, English as a second language, and GED prep). Many of my students were from Mexico or Central America, so when the libraries shut down, I decided to study Spanish on Duolingo. I thought it would be helpful if I could discuss abstract concepts in basic Spanish, rather than with arm waving.

Then I decided that I might as well refresh German. It was my college minor, and at one time I had enough German to get me through several trips to Germany, as well as central European countries where I did not know the local languages. Where the German lessons on Duolingo are particularly obtuse, and online translators offer no help, someone on the Duolingo German forum will inevitably quote Duden. So I grabbed this when I spotted it at Powell's. It is 30 years out of date, and it is a real doorstop, but i think it will be useful. In addition to the dictionary, which will hopefully help me sort out those notorious German compound words, it contains reference sections for weights and measures, telling time, etc.… (plus d'informations)

First in an occasional series - "Reference works and other books I didn't READ cover-to-cover per se but used extensively enough during a certain period of time to comment on their merits." I am going to be a lexicographer, after all, I can hardly ignore the dictionary. So okay, this is on here because it was my German-English dictionary during my stay in Austria in 2008, and as you'd expect from Oxford, it is quite solid - although really bilingual dictionaries have quite little to do with the OED. It was a bit weak on colloquialism for a dictionary of it's physical heft, even one that's meant to be "pocket" - I guess I feel that way because of all the words that weren't in it in the German novels I was reading. "Gleichgültig," we are officially enemies. But the number of conventional phrases that are usefully translated under word headings and the grammar section at the back are both joys to behold.… (plus d'informations)