I discovered today that this is a wonderful way of learning new words. It was a random thought that struck me and if there are others who have had this thought and/or are working in the same manner…. kudos people!!!
And if you have friends then you learn as many words as the count of your bunch. Isn’t that amazing?
The reason to really pursue this is multifold.
1. I learn 1 new word a day. Now suppose I have just one another friend of mine who thinks like the way I do. So we learn 2 words a day. That means 365*2 = 730 words a year at the bare minimum. What an addition to the knowledge bank!!!
That’s how long my essays were in high school!!! 
And I wrote them once or twice a year (Tests you see). And not to forget that I filled it with words like the, is, in, a (or ‘an’ after we knew we had to put ‘an’ before Honest), with, there, are, this, was, it and many many more. That would have accounted for not less than 50% of the words and the rest I am sure were not any new words that I used but the same old words that I learnt in Primary and Upper Primary schools.
So all in all I did not learn any new words after a certain class in school. I have been recycling the same words. Like all the words I have written in here. All the same old words I know from a long time.
2. The argument to the above point would be “that’s how it is right”. I cannot live without these words. Yes I cannot. But at the same time I can improve English Usage by learning new words. Let me give an example to claim this:
a. Usage 1: “What a lively young girl!!” There is nothing new about this.
b. Usage 2: “What a Sprightly young girl!!” Does it not sound a little more striking? Yes yes that’s a new word I leant today whether the girl or the people around listening to it understand the word or not is secondary, the objective is met. You have used something new you learnt. You can educate them with the new word though before they think you are swearing at her.
3. Learning something new excites me all the time. And on top of it sharing it with some more people is fun. When I was in a Boarding School, I remember helping my arts teacher paint words of wisdom on the School walls and one of them I remember very clearly. “A candle does not lose its light by lighting another candle“. Hmmm………
4. Let’s accept this that English is the Bread, Butter and now Biryani of our lives. It is truly a global language now. Even China has realized it and made it a part of their 10 year plan. Indian kids speak English more fluently than their own mother tongue. I do not speak in Hindi or Tamil with my Friend. We speak in English. So why not speak better English than what I do today. Unless we keep getting better, we will always end up lagging behind.
Internet is filled with resources (Oxford, Cambridge etc.). There is installable software like WordWeb. (Remember there is no plural to Software called Softwares) I like Dictionary.com .
As i say ” A word a day keeps the mistakes in English away”
