Submitted by: Nostalgia John(291) Nostalgia John Log in to become a member of Nostalgia John's Fan Club!
Would you like to be a stimulating conversationalist?
Life of the party or, at least, not the wallflower?
Don’t say "never happen".
Read on
In another article in this series we gave the background of the idea that became Reader’s Digest.
Every month that magazine ahs a 20 question multiple choice Vocabulary quiz.
Vocabulary. Yes, Vocabulary
You may not be boring at all. You may just need to tweak yourself into more colorful language.
The Reader’s Digest feature wouldn’t hurt you a bit. I believe it is even titled:
It Pays To Increase Your Word Power
I forget what year in High School it was, that we got this long rectangular box with a thousand little cards in it. Word on the front, definition on the back. Flash card system.
Think about it, 36 week school year, 1000 words. That’s a quiz each week on this weeks’ 25-30 words. Might be okay for an early teen. But, I don’t think that’s practical. Particularly with the education system’s CRAM, REGURGITATE, DISMISS SO YOU CAN CRAM THE NEXT BUNCH IN methodology.
The twenty a month from Reader’s Digest is far more realistic than 30 a week-and more practical with more potential for actually incorporating "new" words.
I personally think that an even better plan would be 1-3 a week. An effort to actually increase your USABLE word stock by 50-70 words a year.
BUT BEFORE ANYONE STARTS A PROGRAM OF DELIBERATELY ‘FINDING’ NEW WORDS TO USE…
…THE NATURAL WAY IS TO BE A READER AND A LISTENER.
HEY, I would love to sell you a vocabulary improvement program. $$$
But if you are not a reader interested in words, the process is artificial.
Think of someone whom you know who is without very colorful speech. Suddenly one day you hear them say:
Stop calumniating against me. Your falsehoods are obfuscating reality.
Those are two very useful words. But to jump from: "Don’t give me a hard time with your baloney." All the way to the above would definitely betray the reality that the sucker just got out a Thesaurus.
So, don’t launch into a Vocab increase strategy until you have become a reader that wants to know what words that he/she reads are all about.
And, by the way, even being a "not very conscious about new words" reader is the straightest path to an improved use of better words.
Think of it, YOU may NOT be boring after all. It may simply be a matter of regularly deploying a couple dozen more words
This is one in a series to help YOU, using delivery and language techniques to make your social life more satisfying.
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