My now Canadian friend Petra sent me a great link that I’d like to share. It’s all about learning English and preventing hunger.
It’s a great way to increase your vocabulary, and at the same time, fight hunger.
The way it works is that it starts giving you words at different levels and then assigns you a starting level according to what you knew and what you didn’t know. Your level adjusts as you play. If you get a word wrong, you go down a level; if you get three words right, you go up a level. I’d tell you my level, but naturally, I don’t want to ruin anybody’s fun. ;-)
Where does the rice part come in?
Well, by playing the vocabulary game you earn rice, 10 grains at a time. The rice is paid for by the advertisers at the bottom of the vocabulary page. The rice itself is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program, which is the world’s largest food aid agency. FreeRice itself runs the website on a non-profit basis.
According to the FAQs, 25,000 people die of hunger or hunger related causes each and every day, most of them children. So, by playing the vocabulary game and trying to beat my level (which is much higher than you can imagine), you can help millions of volunteers fight to end world hunger (although I certainly do not want to insinuate that by merely playing this game you are doing your part - that would be wildly naive and downright wrong).
And, seen from a terribly practical side, you can improve your chances of not writing a letter like Gorbach’s (sadistic guffawing in the background).
Let me know what level you reach … (and yes, I also mean you, Nikk)
English vocabulary game free rice hunger poverty united nations world food program
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November 28, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Monika
Okay Lisa, here is mine: 35!!
Thanks for the link!
November 28, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Lisa
Hey, pretty good. I’m impressed. I wonder where the average will land.
November 28, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Petra
Hey Lisa,
thanks for linking my blog and also “Free Rice”.
Have to confess that my level is 12, so there is still a long way to go :-)
Greetings from Canada!
Petra
November 29, 2007 at 6:13 am
Lisa
Practice makes perfect :-)
November 29, 2007 at 6:17 am
Thomas
Mine was 25. That was really hard!
December 1, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Nikk
Per Lisa’s orders…
My score seems to settle at 42. I played for awhile trying to increase it, but it always came back to 42. I’m tempted to have Mom play…after she’s a “words person” (she’s totally addicted to crosswords, Scrabble, acrostics, etc). I’m more of a “numbers person” and I’d love to know the parameters for the scoring, as well as statistics like the mean and median. Okay, I’m a total stats nerd.
Was this supposed to be about feeding the hungry? Ooops…kind of forgot the point. :-)
Totally fun and helping combat world hunger, too…
Nikk
P.S. Lisa, it is now time to wow us with your score. You are the quintessential “words” girl.
December 2, 2007 at 9:08 am
Lisa
Okay, here’s the dirt.
My first score was 45, but that was beginners luck. After that I seemed to end up at either 43 or 44 each time. It doesn’t seem to matter how long I play.
The scoring system is 3 times right means one level up and once wrong means one level down. I can’t help with the stats.
Well, at least we all earned a lot of rice.
Keep playing.
December 10, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Justi Carey
Ha, beat you Lisa! My score is usually around 47 (I’m another native English speaker, for those who don’t know me). I made it to 49 once but that was a real fluke!
It’s a great site, and for such a good cause too…
Justi
December 10, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Christina
Hi!
My level is between 23 and 25 (the 25 was just good luck). Should I be proud of it, as an non-native-speaker, what do you think? :-)
Whatever, great website…
Christina
December 11, 2007 at 7:44 am
Lisa
Of course you should be proud of it - just as Justi should be. Good going!
Keep practicing, and keep saving rice
December 11, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Justi
For a non-native speaker I think 25 is fantastic - I fear there are many native speakers out there who wouldn’t do so well… Let’s get more people using the site, improving their vocabulary and getting more rice!
PS Lisa it amuses me how often horsey words show up : )
December 13, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Lisa
@ Justi: Horsey words are everywhere! It’s an epidemic!