Test your English vocabulary (while fighting world hunger)

From: Canada Registered: 2008-06-30 Posts: 168

Some posters have been bragging about their high mastery of the English language in other posts, so I thought I might post a link to this amusing English vocabulary test:

http://www.freerice.com/

It has a nice RPG-like level ranking. Plus, you help fight world hunger. What could be better?

elmaestrokgb Member

From: California Registered: 2009-04-10 Posts: 25

That's cool. The harder words have a lot of English onyomis (greek and latin roots) and English gairaigos (I got a few yiddish words). Goes to show you there are always words in your native tongue you don't know, and lots that you can guess if you don't have to be 100% correct.

nest0r Member

Registered: 2007-10-19 Posts: 5236 Website

hehe. I'm sure I could find 100000000 words in dictionaries that I don't know that have been used as English, even if only in the form of loanwords. It makes me happy to know that I can continue to increase my skills for the rest of infinity.

Cool site, if it's 'for real' (don't see why it wouldn't be).

JapanesePod101 Sponsor

Evil_Dragon Member

From: Germany Registered: 2008-08-21 Posts: 683

Wow... I lack AEATT.

Tobberoth Member

From: Sweden Registered: 2008-08-25 Posts: 3364

Quite sick how many words exist that you've never even seen even though you've been exposed to English daily for over 10 years, from all forms of sources.

I hit level 40 once but got stuck around level 37. Questions are eventually repeated though, so it's quite easy to cheat if you continue for a long time.

bombpersons Member

From: UK Registered: 2008-10-08 Posts: 907 Website

Man I suck, I was getting them wrong even on lvl 20.

Transparent_Aluminium Member

From: Canada Registered: 2008-06-30 Posts: 168

You can also change subjects. Famous paintings is nice.

tokidokibenkyoushimasu Member

From: Japan Registered: 2008-10-09 Posts: 10

Man, I considered myself reasonably well-educated (y'know, university educated in the sciences = lots of obscure/useless words) before I took that - got stuck on 44-45. And English is very much my first language. Time for some AEATT?!?

vosmiura Member

From: SF Bay Area Registered: 2006-08-24 Posts: 1085

It's amazing how many superfluous words there are.
I went up to 40 before I realized, this is not helping my Japanese studies!

phauna Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2007-12-25 Posts: 500 Website

I'm only posting because I got to level 50.

nest0r Member

Registered: 2007-10-19 Posts: 5236 Website

phauna wrote:
I'm only posting because I got to level 50.

Pfft, I got to level 100.

nonpoint Member

From: KON? Registered: 2009-07-14 Posts: 168

Japanese is ruining my English!
I used to plateau at levels 36-37 back when freerice only had 40 levels.
Post Japanese studies: level 33
English is not my first language, but still... losing several levels just from a little bit of neglect?
I hope the difficulty-level was changed, because I don't like the idea of languages not being able to coexist peacefully in my head.

nest0r Member

Registered: 2007-10-19 Posts: 5236 Website

I've indirectly provided plenty of rice. Also, I made it to lvl 60 before I was felled by the Ethiopian word for 'a plum floating in a hat filled with perfume' or something. j/k I made it to lvl 100, it's a hidden level.

In all seriousness, I don't think it's possible to get past level 52 w/o some serious pre-study/lucky guesses. It took all my vaunted skills, a cpl lucky guesses, and a cpl questions I'd gotten wrong but remembered the answers to, just to get that high.

Last edited by nest0r (2009 August 09, 9:13 am)

nac_est Member

From: Italy Registered: 2006-12-12 Posts: 617 Website

I got to 50 but then sunk to 45. I also learned a few words
I wish they made one in Japanese!

vosmiura Member

From: SF Bay Area Registered: 2006-08-24 Posts: 1085

Using online dictionaries doesn't count .

rrrrrray Member

From: Toronto Registered: 2009-05-01 Posts: 67

Omg.. only level 25 ..
So many English words I haven't seen!

nest0r Member

Registered: 2007-10-19 Posts: 5236 Website

vosmiura wrote:
Using online dictionaries doesn't count .

I know it's possible to get to level 52 w/o a dictionary, though I had 2 lucky half-guesses to get me there, plus an answer I'd gotten wrong before and remembered the answer to. Tempted to cheat though just to see how insanely awesome you'd have to be to get higher than that.

I think you have to be like a well-traveled 'doctor w/o borders' to get some of those words right. 'Bulgoo'? wtf. Plus some of the questions/answers are wrong in the sense that they're associative rather than directly correlated, or they use obscure, obsolete definitions for common words.

Trying to appease my ego here. ;p 'It's not about me, it's about the starving children...'

Last edited by nest0r (2009 August 10, 11:01 pm)

wrightak Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-07 Posts: 873 Website

Try the "Identify World Countries on the Map" test. Much more fun. See how long it takes you to get to level 5. Given the international community here, we should be pretty good right?

wrightak Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-07 Posts: 873 Website

Shamefully, I donated 1770 grains of rice before I got to level 5. I kept getting to Level 4 and then got smacked down.

nest0r Member

Registered: 2007-10-19 Posts: 5236 Website

I don't think I could find my own country on the map. The shapes of the continents and regional boundaries are ugly, so I ignore them.

Index » 喫茶店 (Koohii Lounge)

phauna wrote:

vosmiura wrote: