Ogden's Basic English Institute Forum

Selected Letters - 2000

    From: Yuzuru Katagiri 
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000
Subj: Dear friends of Basic English,

I have been teaching Basic English in Japanese high school and universities
since 1955.  There is a strong group of teachers interested in Basic
English in Japan.  Most of them are using I.A. Richards and Christine
Gibson's English Through Pictures, which makes use of 500 words out of the
850 words of Basic English.  With John Constable of Cambridge University,
I put together I.A. Richards' writings in a book named "A Semantically
Sequenced Way of Teaching English" in 1993, and the book came out from
Yamaguchi Publishing House in Kyoto, Japan.  A number of books on Basic by
Ogden were newly printed by Hokuseido Press in Tokyo.

Yuzuru Katagiri
[ I asked Yuzuru for the addresses.  Here is his prompt reply.]

Here are the addresses of the publishers:

Yamaguchi Publishing House		The Hokuseido Press
72 Tsukuda-cho			32-4 Honkomagome 3-chome
Ichijoji, Sakyo-ku			Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0021
Kyoto 606, Japan			Japan

Good luck,
Yuzuru
[ I wrote to each for availability and price information.
See the texts page. ]

    

    Date: Tue, 13 June 2000
From: 
Subject: Basic English

Dear Sir
Thank you for the Basic English page.
I have found an interesting article:
   "K.E. Garay: "Empires of the Mind? C.K. Ogden, Winston Churchill
and Basic  English," Canadian Historical Association Historical
Papers, 1988."
   http://www.winstonchurchill.org/ITJ68.htm

  I always thought that "Basic English" could have been more popular,
where it not for this British Empire undertone (especially when
they explain why English is best suited as a world language)...
Anyway, it turns out that Churchill was sponsoring Basic English with
the aim of promoting the Idea stronger cultural ties between
commonwealth countries, i.e. to strengthen British cultural influence.

Quote from the article:

         "What would have been the fate of Basic English had Churchill not so
precipitately fallen from office? It is at least possible that
post-imperial Britain might have assumed a very different face and
that, as the Commonwealth fed upon the bones of what once had been,
the mother country might better have been able to preserve the less
tangible but more precious Empire which Churchill had envisioned.
In that Harvard speech of September 1943, having outlined in glowing
terms the possibilities of Basic English, he exhorted his listeners,
"Let us go forward in malice to none and good will to all. Such plans
offer far  better prizes than taking away other people's provinces or
land or grinding them down in exploitation. The empires of the future
are the empires of the mind."
    
     Lots of thanks for your page
     Michael

    

    From: 
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 14:16 EST
Subject: Basic English
I have been interested in Basic English for many years and would like to
correspond with others who know about it or about C.K. Ogden or about the
Orthologic Society that promoted it in the thirties. Please reply if you
can help me get in touch. Thanks. Paul Donner, MD

    

    From: AD863 
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 13:03:46 EST
Subject: Information

You may be interested in knowing that I recently made a
purchase of  The ABC of Basic English  from the below book store.
This book was an original used copy with the original insert
of the 850 basic words. I am satisfied with the purchase.
This is not an endorsement of the store, but for your information only.

http://www.redding-bookstore.com


    

    From: "Takahiro Kaneko" <
Subject: About Basic English
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000
How do you do.
I am Japanese and very much interested in Basic English.
In Japan, the publisher, Hokuseido Press still has C.K. Ogden's
original works. For example, The ABC of Basic English, The Basic Words,
The General Basic English Dictionary.
T.Kaneko

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