Practice Makes Perfect

Anyone wishing to communicate or read in American English should have an active knowledge of the most popular American proverbs. Proverbs are an important part of the American cultural heritage. The person who does not acquire competence in using proverbs will be limited in conversation; will have difficulty comprehending a wide variety of media - printed matter, radio, television, songs, advertisements, comics and cartoons - and will not understand anti-proverbs or proverb transformations, which presuppose a familiarity with a stock proverb. The book Practice Makes Perfect: Workbook of English and American Proverbs for Students helps familiarize the reader with more than 450 proverbs frequently used in American English and British English today. The main intent of the book is not merely to provide the language learner with a list of some commonly used proverbs to memorize per se but to provide a series of activities and exercises as well that help the learner discover what each proverb means and how to apply it in particular situations. The book also focuses on proverb humor: the reader will find a number of jokes, fables, twists and parodies based on familiar proverbs. The book is directed towards the student of English, the teacher, the folklorist, the linguist, and anyone interested in entering the magical world where proverbs, stories and humor overlap. The book is developed and designed for independent learning. The book Practice Makes Perfect: Workbook of English and American Proverbs for Students consists of 18 units arranged in three parts, each consisting of six units and a test. It covers the main concerns of proverbs, e.g., money and love, knowledge and wisdom, children and parents, speech and silence, words and deeds, necessity and adversity. Three tests, given at the end of each part, help readers to check their acquisition of the proverbial material. Anna T. Litovkina is a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at J. Selye University, Komárno (Slovakia). Besides more than one hundred and thirty scholarly articles, she is the author of twenty books on proverbs and humor, including A Proverb a Day Keeps Boredom Away (2000), Old Proverbs Never Die, They Just Diversify: A Collection of Anti-Proverbs (2006, co-authored with Wolfgang Mieder), Women Through Anti-Proverbs (2018), and Marriage Seen Through Proverbs and Anti-Proverbs (2019, co-authored with Wolfgang Mieder). She is the co-editor of seven volumes and the author (or co-author) of six books published by the Tinta Publishing House, including Angol és amerikai közmondások gyakorlókönyve. Workbook of English and American Proverbs for Students (2023).