American English Compendium: A Guidebook for Translators, Interpreters, Writers, Editors, and Advanced Language Students

Rating:
Summary: The Many Uses of the Compendium
Review: As a professional editor, translator, and project manager for large writing and translation assignments, I found myself using this book on a regular basis as a companion to the regular English language dictionaries I use routinely. When I run into an unusual term in English, or when I have to make a distiction between U.S. and U.K words or expressions, or when I need to check a computer acronym or abbrevation, I find myself referring to this book over and over again. It is an excellent companion to the regular dictionaries, and I highly recommand it to both native speakers of English and to foreigners who struggle with the many pecularities of American and other kinds of English.

Rating:
Summary: Mid-Atlantic English
Review: As our world shrinks and our works flow across borders, our books will sell better if they are not perceived as "foreign". Ordinarily, we circumvent the foreign label by avoiding certain words. We try not to use words that can be spelled in two ways such as color/colour. We try to avoid geographical references such as "About the size of Massachusetts". And we try to avoid (English/Metric) measurements. We call this writing in "Mid-Atlantic English". Then when a distant reader picks up our book, it does not seem as though it was written for someone else.

The American English Compendium goes even further. It explains and often translates proverbs, slogans, aphorisms, expressions, similes, metaphors, slang, colloquialisms, acronyms, abbreviations, nicknames and words. Writers, editors, translators and other wordsmiths will find this book a valuable reference and just fun to read. For full coverage, click on Table of Contents in the left-hand column of this page.

Marv Rubinstein is an attorney and chemical engineer who recently retired from the Monterey Institute of International Studies where he taught American English to foreign students.

As a publisher, author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles and a consultant to the publishing industry, I recommend this book to wordsmiths everywhere. [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: Expecting more
Review: I thought the title to be misleading offering more than what I got. The compendium is limited only to common and conventional terminology, with the same typical and tired examples. For some who might be versed in the English Language, there is nothing new. I guess it is a great buy for an ESL student.

Rating:
Summary: Expecting more
Review: I thought the title to be misleading offering more than what I got. The compendium is limited only to common and conventional terminology, with the same typical and tired examples. For some who might be versed in the English Language, there is nothing new. I guess it is a great buy for an ESL student.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Choice
Review: This book does not reflect the reality of the language. First of all I think it is an insult to say "British English never stood a chance". Let's not forget we are talking about the same language here. Then, the examples the author gives are not real ones either. For example, the word "spiv" it is not correct English, but slang. And that happens with an infinite number of other words. If you are buying this book hoping that it will elucidate you about the difference of terms used in England and the U.S.A, forget it, the book does not accomplish that requisite. It will be a waste of money and time.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent language & translation resource
Review: This book is an excellent language and translation resource for those working with American and British English, particularly in its effort to cover comprehensively areas of language and speech not easily found in dictionaries, compendiums and lexicons. It has large sections dealing with colloquialisms, slang, abbreviations and acronyms, highlighting and explaining the kinds of language problems American/British English translators and interpreters commonly confront. It is also a fascinating and funny read for those interested in the current uneasy relationship between American and British English, as well as an exploration of the contradictions and complexities inherent in the languages. Voluminous to be helpful in most lingusitic situations, yet compact enough and well organized to be easily used, this is that rare kind of reference book: excellent and enduring value!