Free Rice

I love words. I love the way new words sound when I first try them out, and eventually get them right. Even better, I love using shiny new words in conversation. It's exciting. My friend Hilary knows how I feel about words. She called me up the other day and simply said, "Go to FreeRice.com. It will suck away hours of your time. You'll probably blame me for your addiction, but go." Completely baffled, I logged onto the site.

FreeRice.com is a vocabulary game. It's simple: one word is offered, and then you must find the synonym within four possible choices. For each word you name correctly, 20 grains of rice are donated to the U.N. World Food Program to help end hunger. This is made possible through the sponsors that advertise on the site (these ads are small, and neither overbearing nor distracting). Upon further investigation, I learned something REALLY neat: the game actually differentiates itself based on the player. You don't click any 'level 1, 2, or 3' buttons. The level of difficulty is adjusted determined upon the number of correct answers. For those of you familiar with Pandora- it's kind of like that. Your own, personal vocabulary tutor. There's even an option to hear the pronunciation of the word, which is great for ELLs or struggling readers.

Furthermore, FreeRice is the sister site to Poverty.com, which among other things, provides a practical approach to ending the poverty cycle created by social injustices; and therefore saving lives. It is an amazing resource.

New words that I've learned this hour:

Protuberant = Bulging
Potentate = Ruler
Hemidemisemiquaver = Sixty-fourth note (This is my new favorite word, but unless you're in the music industry, I imagine it might be a bit difficult to put into use!)