Business Savvy

Basic English

Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), English linguist, philosopher, and writer compiled a list of some 850 words, published in The ABC of Basic English (Kegan Paul 1935). These 850 words, or their equivalents, in any language, cover the majority of the requirements for most normal communication. The vocabulary is a a great quick test of your knowledge of foreign languages. The online translater (see sidebar) can assist with basic translations, unfortunately human quality translations are still a way off for machines.

Operations words – 100 words
a, about, across, after, again, against, all, almost, among, and, any, as, at, be, because, before, between, but, by, come, do, down, east, enough, even, ever, every, far, for, forward, from, get, give, go, have, he, here, how, I, if, in, keep, let, little, make, may, much, near, no, north, not, now, of, off, on, only, or, other, out, over, please, put, quite, say, see, seem, send, she, so, some, south, still, such, take, than, that, the, then, there, this, though, through, to, together, tomorrow, under, up, very, well, west, what, when, where, while, who, why, will, with, yes, yesterday, you

Things – 400 General words
account, act, addition, adjust, advertisement, agreement, air, amount, amusement, animal, answer, apparatus, approval, argument, art, attack, attempt, attention, attraction, authority, back, balance, base, behavior, belief, birth, bit, bite, blood, blow, body, brass, bread, breath, brother, building, burn, burst, business, butter, canvas, care, cause, chalk, chance, change, cloth, coal, color, comfort, committee, company, comparison, competition, condition, connection, control, cook, copper, copy, cork, cotton, cough, country, cover, crack, credit, crime, crush, cry, current, curve, damage, danger, daughter, day, death, debt, decision, degree, design, desire, destruction, detail, development, digestion, direction, discovery, discussion, disease, disgust, distance, distribution, division, doubt, drink, driving, dust, earth, edge, education, effect, end, error, event, example, exchange, existence, expansion, experience, expert, fact, fall, family, father, fear, feeling, fiction, field, fight, fire, flame, flight, flower, fold, food, force, form, friend, front, fruit, glass, gold, government, grain, grass, grip, group, growth, guide, harbor, harmony, hate, hearing, heat, help, history, hole, hope, hour, humor, ice, idea, impulse, increase, industry, ink, insect, instrument, insurance, interest, invention, iron, jelly, join, journey, judge, jump, kick, kiss, knowledge, land, language, laugh, law, lead, learning, leather, letter, level, lift, light, limit, linen, liquid, list, look, loss, love, machine, man, manager, mark, market, mass, meal, measure, meat, meeting, memory, metal, middle, milk, mind, mine, minute, mist, money, month, morning, mother, motion, mountain, move, music, name, nation, need, news, night, noise, note, number, observation, offer, oil, operation, opinion, order, organization, ornament, owner, page, pain, paint, paper, part, paste, payment, peace, person, place, plant, play, pleasure, point, poison, polish, porter, position, powder, power, price, print, process, produce, profit, property, prose, protest, pull, punishment, purpose, push, quality, question, rain, range, rate, ray, reaction, reading, reason, record, regret, relation, religion, representative, request, respect, rest, reward, rhythm, rice, river, road, roll, room, rub, rule, run, salt, sand, scale, science, sea, seat, secretary, selection, self, sense, servant, sex, shade, shake, shame, shock, side, sign, silk, silver, sister, size, sky, sleep, slip, slope, smash, smell, smile, smoke, sneeze, snow, soap, society, son, song, sort, sound, soup, space, stage, start, statement, steam, steel, step, stitch, stone, stop, story, stretch, structure, substance, sugar, suggestion, summer, support, surprise, swim, system, talk, taste, tax, teaching, tendency, test, theory, thing, thought, thunder, time, tin, top, touch, trade, transport, trick, trouble, turn, twist, unit, use, value, verse, vessel, view, voice, walk, war, wash, waste, water, wave, wax, way, weather, week, weight, wind, wine, winter, woman, wood, wool, word, work, wound, writing, year

Things – 200 Picturable words
angle, ant, apple, arch, arm, army, baby, bag, ball, bank, basin, basket, bath, bed, bee, bell, berry, bird, blade, board, boat, bone, book, boot, bottle, box, boy, brain, brake, branch, brick, bridge, brush, bucket, bulb, button, cake, camera, card, cart, carriage, cat, chain, cheese, chest, chin, church, circle, clock, cloud, coat, collar, comb, cord, cow, cup, curtain, cushion, dog, door, drain, drawer, dress, drop, ear, egg, engine, eye, face, farm, feather, finger, fish, flag, floor, fly, foot, fork, fowl, frame, garden, girl, glove, goat, gun, hair, hammer, hand, hat, head, heart, hook, horn, horse, hospital, house, island, jewel, kettle, key, knee, knife, knot, leaf, leg, library, line, lip, lock, map, match, monkey, moon, mouth, muscle, nail, neck, needle, nerve, net, nose, nut, office, orange, oven, parcel, pen, pencil, picture, pig, pin, pipe, plane, plate, plough/plow, pocket, pot, potato, prison, pump, rail, rat, receipt, ring, rod, roof, root, sail, school, scissors, screw, seed, sheep, shelf, ship, shirt, shoe, skin, skirt, snake, sock, spade, sponge, spoon, spring, square, stamp, star, station, stem, stick, stocking, stomach, store, street, sun, table, tail, thread, throat, thumb, ticket, toe, tongue, tooth, town, train, tray, three, trousers, umbrella, wall, watch, wheel, whip, whistle, window, wing, wire, worm

Qualities – 100 General
able, acid, angry, automatic, beautiful, black, boiling, bright, broken, brown, cheap, chemical, chief, clean, clear, common, complex, conscious, cut, deep, dependent, early, elastic, electric, equal, fat, fertile, first, fixed, flat, free, frequent, full, general, good, great, grey/gray, hanging, happy, hard, healthy, high, hollow, important, kind, like, living, long, male, married, material, medical, military, natural, necessary, new, normal, open, parallel, past, physical, political, poor, possible, present, private, probable, quick, quiet, ready, read, regular, responsible, right, round, same, second, separate, serious, sharp, smooth, sticky, stiff, straight, strong, sudden, sweet, tall, thick, tight, tired, true, violent, waiting, warm, wet, wide, wise, yellow, young

Qualities – 50 Opposites
awake, bad, bent, bitter, blue, certain, cold, complete, cruel, dark, dead, dear, delicate, different, dirty, dry, false, feeble, female, foolish, future, green, ill, last, late, left, loose, loud, low, mixed, narrow, old,, opposite, public, rough, sad, safe, secret, short, shut, simple, slow, small, soft, solid,, special, strange, thin, white, wrong

Your best investment, ever.

A couple of years ago I wrote about the effect of reading for 15 minutes a day. I still believe that reading for 15 minutes a day produces a great return on the investment. Are there other investments we can make?

Study seems like it could be a good thing, but what about return on investment – ROI? This from the TAFE Directors’ Newsletter 21 July 2008:

VET TRAINING GOOD FOR THE HIP POCKET

A new study released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has found that study in the VET sector provided students of all ages with a sound financial investment.

The report, Private returns to vocational education and training qualifications, showed that the rate of return for study in the VET sector generally exceeds 20 per cent, and in some areas more than 50 per cent.

NCVER Managing Director Dr Tom Karmel said that the research puts to rest doubts that doing a VET course is worthwhile.

“The fact is that study in VET institutions is rewarded financially and students come out ahead”, Dr Karmel said.

The research also shows us that males benefit slightly more than females, on average, and that the returns to part-time VET students tend to be greater than for full-timers.

The full report is available from the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). VET is the Australian Vocational Education and Training, TAFE is Technical and Further Education – the polytechnic sector in Australia. In summary, the research found that the best returns were for students who study higher-level qualifications (certificate III upwards), and do so part-time. In other words, go do a trade. I think that’s great advice – here in New Zealand I’d recommend kids leaving school to take to a trade first, get some university training next. Rationale? A school leaver at 18 have be a qualified electrician at 22, earning $60k+, with no student debt. If they want to pursue an academic course of study they can, and complete a degree or two over the next four years – and still have little or no student debt due to careful application of vacation and weekend work.

I believe everyone needs a trade. Why? Look at the word – trade – essentially this is a manual skill you can trade with. It’s the time-tested approach – I’ll paint your walls in exchange for your wiring my house. Somehow a degree in linguistics doesn’t have the same barter power.

Warren Buffett, having grown his personal wealth from zero to $62bn, recently spoke about ‘the most important investment you can make’. As reported over on Moneyweb (hat tip to The Practice of Leadership):

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Very few people get anything like their potential horsepower translated into the actual horsepower of their output in life. Potential exceeds realisation for many people.

Just imagine you’re 16 and I was going to give you a car of your choice today, any car you wanted to pick. But there was one catch. It was the only car you were able to have for the rest of your life. You had to make it last. So how would you treat it?

Well, of course you’d read the owners’ manual about five times before you turn the key in the ignition. You would keep it garaged; any little rust would get taken care of immediately; you’d change the oil twice as often as you were supposed to – because you would know it had to last a lifetime.”

He adds: “Then I tell the students you get one body and one mind. And it’s going to have to last you a lifetime so you’d better treat it the same way. You’d better start doing it right now because it doesn’t do any good if you start working on it when you are 50 or 60 and the little speck of rust has turned into something big.

The best asset is your own self. You can become, to an enormous degree, the person you want to be.”

Buffett says he often asks university students to imagine they had the chance to own 10% of any of their classmates for the rest of their lives. The most popular choice is not the one with the highest IQ or the best grades but, he says “the person who is the most effective”.

“The reason people are effective is because other people want to work with them, they want to be around them. There are qualities that an individual picks up – being generous; being on time; not claiming more than you deliver; helping other people; all kinds of qualities that turn other people on. And there are things that turn people off. These are habits you pick up.” And working on having the right habits, he says, is a great investment.