How would you describe a dictionary?

Have you ever thought about how dictionaries are made? Or who decides what goes in them?

This week on Hear You Go, in an English listening practice Book Talk, episode 63, I’m diving into these questions, inspired by the Japanese novel I recently read called The Great Passage by Shion Miura.

It’s a beautiful story about a quirky group of people working to create the ultimate dictionary—and it got me wondering about a slew of things, including this: are dictionaries still useful in the age of AI?

I’ll share a summary of the book, what I learned about how dictionaries are made (past and present) and how they’ve evolved, and we’ll explore what makes a good one. As always, we’ll note some useful advanced English (B2/C1 Intermediate & Advanced English) along the way and get some English listening practice too.

Ready to go down this rabbit hole with me?

Let’s set sail on The Great Passage!

Hear You Go English language listening podcasts aim to give you, the intermediate English language learner and advanced English language learner, a space to practice your English listening so that you can think, learn, and connect in English.

Links:

ChatGPT made dictionaries worthless

The Great Passage

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