- Hardcover: 672 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Trade); 3rd edition (3 Oct 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0618226478
- ISBN-13: 978-0618226474
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 20.6 x 4.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 815,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Provides information on ideas concerning people, places, ideas, and events currently under discussion, including gene therapy, NAFTA, pheromones, and Kwanzaa.
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43 reviews
48 of 48 people found the following review helpful
A great tool to learn English & Culture.
9 Aug 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am a foreign citizen living in the US for about 4 years for graduate level degree in the US. Culture as well as language are the biggest obstacles of my life in the US. I overcame the basic survival and class language barrier after living 2-3 years, but the cultural barrier with combined with conversational language is very challenging. Not only for more socializing but also more nature English writing and speacking, I worked hard, and Culturacy Dictionary helps me a lot. It includes expressions from various areas, e.g. bible, literature, idiom, etc. During the reading or watching TV, I can understand better the implications and expressions rooted from relgion, history, literature, and other areas of culture.
I use this dictionary with several ways. First, just read the page I am intersted in. Second, I consult it during my writing to find better expression, and do more research to understand the background better via internet. Third, play game with this book with my American Classmates - in fact, this helps me the most. They explain what is not written in the dictionary, and this is the way I can acquire the knowledge of the expression easily and last long in my brain.
This dictionary is wonderful, I think, for both for navtive and non-native. Non natives can upgrade their English level with cultural understanding, and natives can be more sophisticated using their languages. It is a great tool, and I am happy to find it!
I use this dictionary with several ways. First, just read the page I am intersted in. Second, I consult it during my writing to find better expression, and do more research to understand the background better via internet. Third, play game with this book with my American Classmates - in fact, this helps me the most. They explain what is not written in the dictionary, and this is the way I can acquire the knowledge of the expression easily and last long in my brain.
This dictionary is wonderful, I think, for both for navtive and non-native. Non natives can upgrade their English level with cultural understanding, and natives can be more sophisticated using their languages. It is a great tool, and I am happy to find it!
80 of 90 people found the following review helpful
Essential Reference Material
24 Mar 2003
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Want to look up cultural references in Denis Miller's rants? Can't remember what the Byzantine empire did? Feel like your loosing your memory? This book can help!
Yes, I'll admit the title does have a certain haughtiness and presumptiouness to it, but this book is packed with information. The topics covered are quite broad, and I guess it would HAVE to be if the goal is to ensure cultural literacy. Including all the things you should have learned in highschool had you been paying attention, this book is a great refresher course in everything from History, to Literature, to proverbs and idioms in the English language.
It has a bit of a western bias, which is sort of what I'm getting at when I say the title presumes alot. Perhaps an alternate title (and I mean this without cynicsm) would be "what most Americans don't know about America but should." I include myself in that category, by the way.
The best thing about this book is it's organization. At first, I was wishing it was all alphabetical, but then you realize that grouping entries in catagorized chapters is better. Additionally, the bites of data are concise and easily digested, enough to answer a question and provide enough information for you to look elsewhere if you want in depth explainations.
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful
An unlikely coffee table book.
22 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover
The pictures aren't flashy. The text isn't eloquent. But, this book delivers exactly what the subtitle suggests, "What Every American Needs to Know." Full of up-to-date and well-organized content, the book provides answers to everyday questions, in addition to being a source for research. (Writers of college papers will find this a very useful tool.)
Although I am not one to pick up a dictionary and read through it, I typically cover several pages at a time when I reference this book. While reading the text of one piece, I often find myself intrigued about, and looking up, another topic.
Every home should have a copy of this book!
"Tight Lines!"
~..~..~.. ><((((*>
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