Charles Kay Ogden, about 1930, made a selection of 850 English words. He said that it's possible for you, using these 850, to give account of anything British, American, Scientific, International, and Commercial. It's Ogden's B-A-S-I-C English.

OPERATION BASIC: Ryota's Basic English Station

Ryota Iijima

Basic English, when it was made public, got attention from a great number of expert teachers, writers, and organizations in countries like Britain and the North America. Other countries like China and Japan, in addition, had teachers, from Britain, America, and Japan, teaching Basic in schools. After the War from 1941 to 45, however, the number of teachers and learners got smaller and smaller. The books, on and in Basic, went out of print in Britain and America. A group of teachers in Japan, however, have been learning, teaching, and writing about Basic English.

Now a great number of men and women, and boys and girls, have complex word-processing and number-processing machines. Because those machines are in connection with the international network, they send their writings online and have exchange of news and opinions. The greatest trouble, however, is still about language. It's possible for more of them to get in touch with you, if your writing is in Basic, or in anything that is near Basic. Small number of words; great number of friends.

Online Pages on Basic

Ogden's Basic English Institute, by James Bauer, Marshalltown, Iowa, USA: <www.basic-english.org>

Basic English Books

Most of the books on Basic, it seems, are now out of print in Britain and the North America. A number of them, however, are in print, with some Japanese notes, in Japan.

Daniels, F. J. Basic English Writers' Japanese-English Wordbook: Eibun wo Kaku Tame no Jisho. Tokyo: Hokuseido P, 1960. ISBN4-590-00322-8.

Ogden, C. K. Basic by Examples. 1933. London: Orthological Institute, 1952. Newly printed as Behshikku Tanbunrei 2734. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1985. ISBN4-590-00737-1.

---. The Basic Dictionary. London: Orthological Institute, 1932. Newly printed as Behshikku Eiei Iikae Jiten. With a short account in Japanese. Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1990. ISBN4-590-00862-9.

---. Basic Step by Step. London: Orthological Institute, 1935. Printed as Behshikku 30 no Suteppu. Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1985. ISBN4-590-00736-3.

---. Everyday Basic English. KARAKIDA Teruyo, notes in Japanese. Tokyo: Hokuseido P, 1992. ISBN4-590-00909-9.

---, ed. The General Basic English Dictionary. Orthological Institute. Newly printed as Behshikku Eiei Jiten. Tokyo: Hokuseido P, 1992.