When you are in school the teachers and instructors work hard to teach you a good vocabulary. It is important in life to know how to use the words and to know different words that mean the same thing. Having a strong vocabulary will enable you to understand other people better and will improve your ability to communicate with others.
For almost every word that we choose to use in the English language there are other words that have the same meaning. These words can often times make the things we are saying sound more poetic when we speak. Sometimes these other words are better understood by some people than they are by other people. Sometimes the using of a different word to say the same thing makes the person appear more intelligent and like they have a better education.
Our vocabulary skills reflect on the education we received and they reflect on our intelligence. In a job interview two candidates who have equally impressive credentials may be judged on their vocabulary skills. The candidate that is more articulate will be the one that the company chooses to hire because this person will be considered to be a bigger benefit to the appearance of the company.
Every one of us uses slang words and slang terms when we are around our family members and our close friends. Some groups of people even give new meanings to words. Only the people in the group will understand what is being said when the word is used inappropriately. This way of communicating with friends is fine but we also need to be able to communicate with people outside of our circle of friends. We need to be able to make people from all walks of life understand what we have to say and we need to understand what they are saying to us.
If you are buying life insurance and you do not understand the terms that the insurance agent is using you can be confused about which policy to purchase. Different groups of professionals also have what appears to be their own language that they speak. If you have a large vocabulary to rely on it is likely that you can determine what the other person is talking about simply by how the word is being used in a sentence.
The only sure way to increase your vocabulary is to ask questions. When someone uses a word or a phrase you are unfamiliar with do not hesitate to ask them what the word or phrase meant. There is no shame in not knowing something there is shame in not trying to learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment