Vocabulary in today's youth

[Labyrinth]

I find it really hard to express my ideas any language other than the complexities that my vocabulary allows. Otherwise, it bores me to rigour mortis and tears, often in that order. Without my scientific and literary backgrounds however, I doubt I'd have that.

 

[Noamuth]

As silly as it sounds, finding 'ye olde' words to throw at someone is surprisingly entertaining.

I think this is just as bad. Trying to confuse people with outdated words is not clever, it's just pretentious. The end goal of language should be communication, not grouping people based on the words they use.

I don't do it to be pretentious or clever. I just enjoy using the words. Sorry if it came off as 'I like confusing people because I am smarter', I worded that post very badly.

 

[scarbunny]

As silly as it sounds, finding 'ye olde' words to throw at someone is surprisingly entertaining.

I think this is just as bad. Trying to confuse people with outdated words is not clever, it's just pretentious. The end goal of language should be communication, not grouping people based on the words they use.

I don't do it to be pretentious or clever. I just enjoy using the words. Sorry if it came off as 'I like confusing people because I am smarter', I worded that post very badly.

However it is fun to confuse people with language.

 

[Labyrinth]

As silly as it sounds, finding 'ye olde' words to throw at someone is surprisingly entertaining.

I think this is just as bad. Trying to confuse people with outdated words is not clever, it's just pretentious. The end goal of language should be communication, not grouping people based on the words they use.

I don't do it to be pretentious or clever. I just enjoy using the words. Sorry if it came off as 'I like confusing people because I am smarter', I worded that post very badly.

However it is fun to confuse people with language.

Even more fun to piss off would-be grammar Nazis.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

Also atleast where i live, the smartest when it comes to language tend to be boys, but the majority of the atleast semi-literate seem to be female, is this just me or has anyone else noticed?

 

[Noamuth]

Oh well. Even though it's already obvious, even though I'm happy with my vocabulary, I tend to get horrible cases of verbal diarrhea. XD

Also atleast where i live, the smartest when it comes to language tend to be boys, but the majority of the atleast semi-literate seem to be female, is this just me or has anyone else noticed?

It's not a big difference here, but girls tend to be worse here too.

 

[Labyrinth]

Also atleast where i live, the smartest when it comes to language tend to be boys, but the majority of the atleast semi-literate seem to be female, is this just me or has anyone else noticed?

Thanks for the vote of confidence. To be honest, more of my female friends are overly literate. In my rough guess at least. It probably winds up about 50 50.

 

[Novajam]

Reading this thread brings back a few memories.

1. My tutorial group teacher is a teacher of English Literature and has a Masters Degree in English. One day, a few of the people in the class asked her to use the biggest words she could think of. She replied with a gigantic sentence with so many large words that after she said it she was met with awkward silence and quirky looks.

2. I remember that one time when I went to see a movie, before it started I had the misfortune of seeing the trailer for the "Bratz" movie, and just after the trailer popped up the release date, in big pink sparkly letters was the "word", "OMG!" I remember letting out long, audible groan.

Also, this [http://overcompensating.com/posts/20080226.html] seems suitable to be linked.

 

[wahi]

I met three girls my age who didn't know what the meaning of insomnia was. I truly hope this is an isolated event.

not that i am implying anything or such but talking to three girls about insomnia... wow... i guess you're an adventurous kinda guy....

EDIT: seriously, my life changed when i read the old man and the sea, Hemingway hardly ever uses large tough words and i didn't need a dictionary or anything for it. now i try to keep my language simple...

 

[monodiabloloco]

They use "wicked" here in New England, I picked up the habit about six months after moving here, though since then I've annoyed myself so much that I'm starting to finally break said habit.

I used to be a skater (or sk8r if you are annoying) so I tend to speak with lots of 'dude's and, when tired, sound like Ted (Theodore) Logan of Bill and Ted. Not quite in what I say so much as HOW I say. One of my most often used phrases is 'Wicked awesome!' which started as a joke on myself one night and sort of stuck with all my friends... who all say it in that skater/surfer/Ted sort of voice.

My vocabulary is pretty wide. I don't use it as much as I used to simply because I got tired of hearing 'What's that mean?' from one of my exes. I tend to delve into it quite a bit more when around my friends though. It's kinda funny sometimes how you see people who don't speak properly. My fiance is from the south of Indiana (Mid-west state for you non-Americans) and she speaks like a very uneducated person. She says ain't, seen instead of saw, etc... It's sometimes easy to forget that despite that, her vocabulary is pretty awesome. We play games against each other like Scrabble or Word Jong on the DS and she destroys me fairly regularly with incredible words that I know but never would have thought of to use.

 

[fluffylandmine]

Ok I the quote to end all quotes "Oh *insert name here*! I am too street smart, I know what to do at a street light!"- girl I know who is very book smart but has little other knowledge beyond that.

Ya this quote is, well a kind of...there is no excuse for that.

 

[dukeh016]

The sort of opposite of that is pig-headed, arrogant, boorishness like you get in groups of me-too kids who have yet to learn that behaviour of that sort will only earn them social kudos until the age of, what, fifteen, and only then from their equally insecure friends. After that the joke is over: shape up or it's manual labour for the next forty years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTzZpoiEMM0&feature=related

Anywho, grasping the extremities of the vocabulary of a language means nothing if you can't use it correctly. In fact, the extent of vocabulary only matters when there is a severe discrepancy. For instance, an English professor won't care if you understand the subtle differences between two different words; its much more likely they care what the words are trying to say. The only person that will notice the use of "ponder" over "wonder" is someone who is relatively ignorant of the language. Supposedly, a successful intellectual would be surrounded by peers that don't suffer from such a disability. More importantly, a successful speaker knows to target his speech to his audience.

Back to my original point, the appearance of words matters much less than their content. That is where the challenge lies. Someone mentioned Dostoevsky earlier, and how he would be less respected if he only understood basic English. This may be true. But he would never have been anything if he didn't understand the complex desires of the human soul. This, for me at least, is the true standard of great writers. Judging by the numerous posts of "me too" I can only suppose that the more important aspect of writing is still at a very basic level in our educational system.

 

[sammyfreak]

The sort of opposite of that is pig-headed, arrogant, boorishness like you get in groups of me-too kids who have yet to learn that behaviour of that sort will only earn them social kudos until the age of, what, fifteen, and only then from their equally insecure friends. After that the joke is over: shape up or it's manual labour for the next forty years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTzZpoiEMM0&feature=related

Anywho, grasping the extremities of the vocabulary of a language means nothing if you can't use it correctly. In fact, the extent of vocabulary only matters when there is a severe discrepancy. For instance, an English professor won't care if you understand the subtle differences between two different words; its much more likely they care what the words are trying to say. The only person that will notice the use of "ponder" over "wonder" is someone who is relatively ignorant of the language. Supposedly, a successful intellectual would be surrounded by peers that don't suffer from such a disability. More importantly, a successful speaker knows to target his speech to his audience.

Back to my original point, the appearance of words matters much less than their content. That is where the challenge lies. Someone mentioned Dostoevsky earlier, and how he would be less respected if he only understood basic English. This may be true. But he would never have been anything if he didn't understand the complex desires of the human soul. This, for me at least, is the true standard of great writers. Judging by the numerous posts of "me too" I can only suppose that the more important aspect of writing is still at a very basic level in our educational system.

That was my point about Dovstoevsky, he is famous because of his understanding of how people work, not how many english words he knew.

 

[scarbunny]

The sort of opposite of that is pig-headed, arrogant, boorishness like you get in groups of me-too kids who have yet to learn that behaviour of that sort will only earn them social kudos until the age of, what, fifteen, and only then from their equally insecure friends. After that the joke is over: shape up or it's manual labour for the next forty years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTzZpoiEMM0&feature=related

Anywho, grasping the extremities of the vocabulary of a language means nothing if you can't use it correctly. In fact, the extent of vocabulary only matters when there is a severe discrepancy. For instance, an English professor won't care if you understand the subtle differences between two different words; its much more likely they care what the words are trying to say. The only person that will notice the use of "ponder" over "wonder" is someone who is relatively ignorant of the language. Supposedly, a successful intellectual would be surrounded by peers that don't suffer from such a disability. More importantly, a successful speaker knows to target his speech to his audience.

Back to my original point, the appearance of words matters much less than their content. That is where the challenge lies. Someone mentioned Dostoevsky earlier, and how he would be less respected if he only understood basic English. This may be true. But he would never have been anything if he didn't understand the complex desires of the human soul. This, for me at least, is the true standard of great writers. Judging by the numerous posts of "me too" I can only suppose that the more important aspect of writing is still at a very basic level in our educational system.

That was my point about Dovstoevsky, he is famous because of his understanding of how people work, not how many english words he knew.

It's all well and good to want to express your ideas however, if your vocabulary stunted due to stupidity or social stigma then it dosnt matter what you think, as even if you can express the idea no one will want to listen.

 

[dukeh016]

It's all well and good to want to express your ideas however, if your vocabulary stunted due to stupidity or social stigma then it dosnt matter what you think, as even if you can express the idea no one will want to listen.

Unless everyone has the same stunted vocabulary. Oddly enough, the theme of these posts appears to be that a full vocabulary is less common than a stunted one. And yet you claim that no one listen unless you use alot of words that the majority of people can't understand? Mind you, us Americans have had a President for 8 years who is absolutely famed for being incapable of mastering the English language.

Don't get me wrong, I think an expansive vocabulary is a great thing, and certainly adds meaning when deployed correctly. But the only possible way to use language in that manner is to have something really important and delicate to say, which can then be reflected in precise and bold word-choice. Even then, simpler words can often carry more weight. Just look at a beer commercial. Budweiser is my personal favorite, as I think they employ the English language more powerfully than any other commercial agent I have seen. And they use words everyone understands.

My observation, assuming that I have a cogent observation rather than a rambling line of desperate conclusions, is that no one here is really saying anything important or delicate, hence rendering their extensive vocabulary rather innocuous, as using "ponder" rather than "wonder" doesn't actually add meaning to the discussion.

Edit: My apologies Sammyfreak. I flip through these posts sometimes, especially when I detect a common theme developing. I consider myself corrected and applaud your judgement.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I've got a friend, and although I consider myself around his level of intelligence, the difference is he'll never say 'fire' when 'conflagration' will do.#

For me, sure, I have a pretty wide vocabulary, but I rate being understood by normal people over showing off how smart I am, there's no harm in using the proper words in the right context, but some people do just overuse complex terms when simple ones would work just as well.

He was also asked what an MP3 was once, and he starts going on about it being an mpeg layer 3 audio encoding codec with compression algorithms or some some such factual nonsense, eventually I stepped in and said 'its like a track on a cd, except its been made into a computer file.'

It's ok if you're talking to people in your IT department, but when you're at a party, and someone's mother has asked in mild curiousity what mp3s are, surely common sense dictates, give a simple answer a regular person could understand.

I'm not saying we should all stop reading and just watch american idol and QVC til we die, but I think being able to be understood by other people is more important than showing off how many big words you know.

Having said that, I do enjoy reading, I love learning new things, and I'm a big fan of the english language.

I also draw the line somewhere, I'm happy to explain things simply to regular folks, if they're technical or otherwise not of their circle of interest, but when I worked in retail, a couple of questions I was asked...and these were not kids, either.

When filling out a form for a loyalty card -
'Surname, do I put MY name there? Whats a surname?'

And possibly the greatest one ever, while filling the cd racks -
'oi mate, how does this alphabetical system work then?'

I truly wish I was making it up...

EDIT: looking up, people certainly seem to be making a better case than I have, and I am not aiming my above criticisms at the posters here, but maybe its my nature, as said, to keep things basic and clear, I'm still quite new here and used to posting on other internet forums!

 

[scarbunny]

It's all well and good to want to express your ideas however, if your vocabulary stunted due to stupidity or social stigma then it dosnt matter what you think, as even if you can express the idea no one will want to listen.

Unless everyone has the same stunted vocabulary. Oddly enough, the theme of these posts appears to be that a full vocabulary is less common than a stunted one. And yet you claim that no one listen unless you use alot of words that the majority of people can't understand? Mind you, us Americans have had a President for 8 years who is absolutely famed for being incapable of mastering the English language.

Don't get me wrong, I think an expansive vocabulary is a great thing, and certainly adds meaning when deployed correctly. But the only possible way to use language in that manner is to have something really important and delicate to say, which can then be reflected in precise and bold word-choice. Even then, simpler words can often carry more weight. Just look at a beer commercial. Budweiser is my personal favorite, as I think they employ the English language more powerfully than any other commercial agent I have seen. And they use words everyone understands.

My observation, assuming that I have a cogent observation rather than a rambling line of desperate conclusions, is that no one here is really saying anything important or delicate, hence rendering their extensive vocabulary rather innocuous, as using "ponder" rather than "wonder" doesn't actually add meaning to the discussion.

Edit: My apologies Sammyfreak. I flip through these posts sometimes, especially when I detect a common theme developing. I consider myself corrected and applaud your judgement.

I think you misunderstand me. I dont think that people wont listen if your vocabulary is less than extensive, more that if you speak like Vicky Polard like the majority of todays youth (at least the ones in my area) then why would any one take the time to listen?

For those who dont know who Vicky Polard is please view this http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/images/ea_drm.jpg

As for abuse of English, bimbo one "cant believe they said that about me, thats blasphemous"

 

[dukeh016]

I think you misunderstand me. I dont think that people wont listen if your vocabulary is less than extensive, more that if you speak like Vicky Polard like the majority of todays youth (at least the ones in my area) then why would any one take the time to listen?

For those who dont know who Vicky Polard is please view this http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/images/ea_drm.jpg

As for abuse of English, bimbo one "cant believe they said that about me, thats blasphemous"

Perhaps its a bad omen that I can't make my point clear. I refer to my first sentance of my last post. If everyone except a select few speak in rather basic language, then it occurs to me that plenty of people will listen when the basic language is used. Because everyone speaks that way. Using a more extensive vocabulary will only make the minority of people that can understand listen. I hope this clarifies my position.

 

[SteinFaust]

i have adopted many colloquialisms growing up, and thus have an extensive vocabulary made up of actual english words and slang. i have often been asked to translate when people of opposite persuasions (such as skater vs "ghetto" or tech-savvy vs tech-ignorant) try to interact. i enjoy using my vocabulary for reading or writing, but i mostly use it to create clever loopholes in policies and ideas, or to twist words and make people feel stupid when i'm annoyed with them.
i love the escapist though, because it's a shining example amidst a haze of "rofl"s and semi-1337.

 

[Pohlkat]

I met three girls my age who didn't know what the meaning of insomnia was. I truly hope this is an isolated event.

not that i am implying anything or such but talking to three girls about insomnia... wow... i guess you're an adventurous kinda guy....

I'm interested in what that could imply, I suppose I'm just that kinda guy who whirls of into wild tangents completely unrelated to the topic at hand, but it was 5:30 in the morning, so I don't think "insomnia" coming up in conversation is unreasonable. I make a lot of bad analogies as well. Doesn't matter how many words I know, "You can't milk a dead cow" just doesn't fit well into conversation. Unless you're EA or Nintendo.