In the Internet age, most students would turn to online dictionaries for guidance in proper word use, but one senior citizen in Taipei still recommends people to do it the old fashioned way. This respected editor of English-Chinese dictionaries even takes the trouble to peddle his works on the streets, while offering steamed buns as bonus items to attract customers.

This man is not your ordinary street vendor. First of all, the combination of products he promotes is almost unheard of--dictionaries and steamed buns. And his marketing strategy is also intriguing. For each dictionary sold, six bonus buns will be offered, while those who purchase 80 steamed buns can get one dictionary for free.

Perhaps most surprising of all is the identity of the vendor himself. Liu Yun-kuo, aged 79, is actually the editor of the dictionary he sells. An experienced correspondent and translator, Liu often found the existing reference works on Chinese-English translation faulty and inadequate, so he embarked on an ambitious project at the age of 55 to compile a dictionary singlehandedly, which eventually took him 10 years.

The first one sold very well, but the sales of a follow-up version was hurt by the rise of free online lexicons in recent years, leaving Liu suddenly stuck with over 4,000 unsold copies at home.

Unwilling to see his decade-long-effort go down the drain, Liu decided to sell the dictionaries himself. He came up with the steamed bun idea just half a year ago, trying to reach out to serious English learners through their taste buds. Liu admits that he is never much of a salesman.

His only hope now is to pass down a lifetime's worth of English learning experiences for the benefit of younger generations.

◆ 追蹤更多華視影音及圖文新聞：
1.用Plurk追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞：追蹤
2.用Twitter追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞：追蹤