On July 29th I wrote a post about how email style says a lot about the person who wrote it. But spoken words also say a lot about the person who says them. The words you use to convey your ideas also influence how those ideas are perceived by others.
If you use a lot of technical jargon you can come across as someone who knows a lot about the field (as long as you are using them correctly) to other people in the know, or you can come off as pretentious to people outside of the jargon circle. Using overly large words in abundance also sounds pretentious.
Using slang makes you sound unprofessional. While in some situations you might not want to necessarily be professional, in a professional setting it makes it hard for others to take you seriously if you use slang.
I was in a situation with someone once where he was trying to engage in a debate about some piece of educational research with me. This is someone who is also in the education field and could be considered a professional. They were using not just slang, but swearing. And in that split second instance that person lost any respect they might have had in my mind and I have not been able to take anything they say seriously since. If a person has no greater way to express themselves than to drop into the gutter, their ideas deserve just as much thought as their words received, i.e., none.
You don’t use ACT level words when teaching kindergartners. You don’t use gutter language when talking with professionals (or kindergartners, or really ever).
I am an educator and PhD. I quilt, belly dance, run, read, and try to grow things. I am a Mormon. I am infertile. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter, friend, wife, and mom.
Brett L. Dennis
Mama g
Giggles
AmandaStretch
It’s so crazy that you posted this, because JUST today at the playground, I heard a conversation between two moms sitting around the sandbox who were (1) gossiping about a mutual “friend” behind her back and (2) using profanity. Their children were babies, so they presumed they didn’t need to check their language. Since Sonya was within earshot, happily trying to make a sandcastle, I asked these two “ladies” to mind their language, because I didn’t want Sonya to pick up any of these words. One of them turned to me and said, point blank, “Sorry, but they’re going to hear bad words, anyway. You should teach her which words she can say outside versus inside the home.” Okay (1) seriously? (2) seriously? (3) call me naive, but I’d like my daughter to have the childhood she deserves. Yes, she will eventually learn curse words soon enough, but by then, hopefully, she’ll be school age, and I’ll be able to explain things to her better. Right now, she’s TWO, ladies! (4) are your children going to use such language inside your home? do you think that’s cute or funny? because I think it’s sad. Very, very sad… But you and I, Lisa, we just might be a dying breed of idealistic prudes.
I bet those moms will be surprised in a few years when their kids start swearing at them. They’ll wonder where they learned it. Outside versus inside the home? It’s okay to be rude, crude, and unrefined outside the home when you are trying to make an impression on the world? Didn’t their mothers teach them manners? Do they really think those things stay outside the home? Oy!
I hear a lot of profanity on the bus. I always question the intelligence of a person who can’t seem to get a single sentence out of their mouth without some profanity or other coming with it. Are their vocabularies really that small?
Idealistic prude. I like the sound of that. I could print a shirt with that on it and wear it with pride. I think there are quite a few idealistic prudes out there, but we are definitely out numbered.
count me in
I believe that finding the precise word for the given circumstance is one of the most powerful skills a person can develop. Using unnecessarily large words shows the same characteristic that using profanity shows, which is the same characteristic used by politicians when they come up with political slogans. It stops becoming a mechanism to convey thoughts, stops conveying any meaning at all, and starts to become a way to manipulate your target into forming a certain impression about YOU. The manipulation is what makes it seem pretentious, and where I start to get annoyed.
Yes we can! Yes we can!
Too bad no one ever asked him to finish the sentence.
I agree with Brett! Careful, precise language that is appropriate to your audience and your meaning is an impressive skill. Using the right words at the right time, whether big or small, jargon or layperson terms, etc., conveys intelligence in a way that using ACT words constantly can’t.
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