#229 / Vocabulary

When I was a couple of years out of college, I spent a summer in Macao, as part of the Volunteers in Asia summer teaching program.

I taught English vocabulary to English-speaking Chinese students. It was a fabulous experience.

I have always loved vocabulary. During my college years, whenever I read a book, if there was a word I didn't know, I circled it on the page, and then wrote it down at the front of the book. When I finished the book, I looked up all the words I hadn't known, and then typed up the definitions on blue index cards. I've still got those cards, and I still browse through them from time to time.

Until you know the word, I've found, you don't really know the thing.