100 Words

31 March 2011 - England's Italian football manager Fabio Capello claims he can manage his players with just 100 words. So how far could you get with a vocabulary of that size? Despite his sometimes colourful language, communicating with Wayne Rooney does not require a Shakespearean command of English. That's just as well, as the England manager has admitted he's having problems learning some of the basics. "If I need to speak about the economy or other things, I can't speak," he told reporters. "But when you speak about tactics, you don't use a lot of words. I don't have to speak about a lot of different things. Maximum 100 words." In Capello's defence, his vocabulary appears to be far wider than 100 words. But how far would such a limited knowledge take you? For Peter Howarth, deputy director of Leeds University's language centre, Capello's defence of his language skills looks shaky. "It's a ridiculously small number, you could learn 100 words in a couple of days, particularly when you're in the country surrounded by the language," he says. "People do say that from a learners point of view, English is relatively easy to use without too much grammar ... but Fabio Capello needs a range, presumably, and to communicate emotions and a bit of nuance."