Irving Finkel

Have you ever, in your life, opened a full-size volume of the Oxford English Dictionary?

It's about that.

I have a whole set.

I love them.

So this is it.

You take a volume off the shelf, and you open the book, and you run your forefinger down the various columns of writing.

You might have to turn several pages before you find a single word you've ever heard before.

because English is unimaginably rich.

I grew up in a house where everybody read literature all the time.

I had three sisters and then a brother, and we all read literature.

Went to the library every week, read lots and lots and lots of books, so we all had really good vocabulary.

And

That's how you get vocabulary, otherwise you don't, because in conversation, do you want more tea, or this sort of stuff, you don't learn your vocabulary, you have to get it from reading and listening to proper stuff.

That's exactly right.

I must say, I think it is a pity if, having produced such wonderful languages in the world, that their use is so inhibited.

That's true.

But I think that language properly used is a crucial human tool for communication.

About 130,000.

Well, there are not many jokes you asked about jokes.

Yeah, I think there are.