As Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn, I get a lot of questions asked about the English language, especially on how to build one's vocabulary.
Yes, vocabulary. That's what people are worried about, "my vocabulary is not big enough" being a constant refrain.
When you examine this, however, you find it is not that their vocabulary is small - today, a 25-year-old has done at least 10 years of English-language training at various levels - assuming they have done their due diligence required by an education system which emphasizes little other than vocabulary building.
It is, rather, that their working vocabulary is small. They may know the primary meanings of a word in the dictionary, but not the nitty-gritty of it when it comes to practical use.
The other day, I got a question from someone about Yao Ming, who plays for the Houston Rockets in the NBA. Yao, he read, had returned to the lineup after getting a clean bill of health after a foot injury. Yao had been out since December 18, 2005. He returned on January 31, 2006….
Anyway, he asked: "What's this 'bill of health' about? All I know is that you have to pay the bill after a meal at a restaurant."
"Or a telephone bill," when prompted what else he might know about the word "bill".
"I pay my cell phone bills on time," he said. "That's all I know about bills."
You see, it's not so much that one doesn't have a vocabulary, as that one has a vocabulary which's limited when it comes to usage.
A few people have been known to recite full dictionaries in a vainglorious effort to enlarge their vocabulary. Yet all they do is try to remember the most common explanations of a word, rather than its various usages in everyday conversation as well as in writing.
Take the very word "bill" for example.
A bill the waiter hands over to you after a meal is a list of particulars you may or may not have ordered. You often have to double check to make sure - That's why it's called a check in Britain. Joking aside, do check it before paying the bill and taking your leave.
Hence, a bill can be a list of things in other circumstances, such as in entertainment - it's a program sheet with details about who's performing, what is being shown in, say, a movie.
When Zhang Ziyi is said to "top the bill" in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", she is the leading actress.
The controversial movie about the lives of Japanese geishas has been cleared of distribution in China's mainland on February 9, but the government changed its mind, cancelling the release over the weekend, according to the Associated Press. (AP speculates that Chinese authorities might be worried that "the sight of Chinese actresses playing Japanese geishas would stir a backlash".)
In other words, "Geisha" has not been given "a clean bill of health", which is what Yao Ming got after missing 21 games.
"A clean bill of health", therefore, is an all-negative list of medical tests a patient has taken. Essentially, it's an official statement of "there's nothing wrong".
There's nothing wrong with Yao. The same can not be said of the "Geisha" in the view of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV. At present, at least.
When you put a list of events in a printed notice, the "bill" becomes an advertisement, in the form of a poster, or a "billboard". The billboard is sighted everywhere in Beijing, by the street and atop buildings.
This just in:
"Since February 2004, Kansas City, Missouri, has erected 10 billboards with the names and photos of fugitives wanted for murder, along with a phone number for anonymous tips and the lure of cash rewards. Eight of the 10 have been captured, says Sergeant Craig Sarver of the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission, and "seven of those eight have been related directly to the tips from the billboards." (USA Today, February 3, 2006).
Having a vocabulary is basic to any attempt at mastering the English language. Having a flexible and lively vocabulary is a key to effective communication.
In other words, life is good if you are able to "foot all the bills". It is more exciting when you find yourself "billing and cooing" with someone else.
Like birds.
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