If you’ve said you wanted to give back and help those in need but you’ve never actually done anything about it, here’s your chance. A site called “Free Rice” has turned helping the hungry into a “game” that tests your vocabulary. When you go to the site, a word will be displayed and you’ll be give four different choices of what the word means. For each word you get right, they’ll donate 10 grains of rice to a hungry person through an international aid agency. Nice, huh?
Aside from Free Rice’s goal of helping to end world hunger by providing free rice to those in need, they also have a goal of helping people learn new vocabulary. They’ve got a database filled with thousands of different words that vary in difficulty. Once you start, it will determine a “starting” level based upon how you answered and whether you got it right or not. Should you get a word wrong, it will drop your level down to something easier. If you get three words right in a row though, you’ll go to a harder level. They say that their system helps to keep you at the “outer fringe of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.”
You’ll notice at the bottom of the site that they display three different sponsors at a time. These are all of the different companies that are supporting the program and paying for the rice. The rice is then distributed by the United Nations World Food Program which words to end hunger around the globe. It’s definitely a great project, and a great way to get people involved.
Let me warn you before you start that some of the words are pretty difficult! Any guesses (without going to a dictionary) at what Calumny means? Does it mean verge, tattletale, fit of frustration, or slander? This is the word I just got stuck on, but as of now I’ve donated 60 grains of rice.
Source: Thanks for the tip rogoisu! [via Digg]
My English is better than I thought
, and yes, I know what calumny is without looking at the dictionary 
. A commendable effort and a fun site as well.
Well i’m glad you learned your English is better than you thought, because I learned that mine wasn’t as good as I thought.
doesn’t take long for it to bore you though. unfortunately, as americans, we seem to have far too short an attention span. i am a bit disappointed that it’s rice…because that leads me to believe that we’re helping some 3rd world country feed their inhabitants. i didn’t do any research, but that’s the feeling i get, which leads me to ask why aren’t they helping feed some of america’s hungry? which leads me to ask myself why i’m helping with the rice thing when my own backyard needs some greening.
oh well, 470 grains of rice is really only a spoonful anyway right?
This is a good idea and all, but 10 grains of rice per word? Isn’t that a bit, um what’s the word, cheap? The companies sponsoring this project can definitely afford to donate a little more than that. And since they have decided to donate 10 per word, why not make the words a little easier? It’s like they’re looking for ways not to support this. Maybe harder words should be worth more or something…
After about 50 words I got bored with it, too. It was definitely fun at the beginning though.
The food is given to the United Nations World Food Program, but the rice itself is bought from local farmers to support the economy.
That would have been cool, but they are getting 5 million grains of rice everyday. I wonder how many boxes that is equivalent to?
I was surprised to find i knew so many words in English!
In the same line of thought, you may want to “click” over here too!:
[thehungersite.com]
That’s an interesting concept. I wonder how much of the ad proceeds actually go to the cause.