vocabulary | vo·cab·u·lary | \vō-ˈka-byə-ˌler-ē, və-\
I’m sure you’ve been told before, but expanding your vocabulary is good for you! And it’s not just about learning needless fancy words, but like marketing pro Seth Godin says, “…it’s often hard to know if the fancy word is needless until after you learn it.” Hmm!
It’s easy to sit back and be comfortable with the level you’re at, because how many words do you actually need throughout any given day? But think of it from a career standpoint. Godin continues, “A fork in the road for most careers is what we choose to do when we confront a vocabulary (from finance, technology, psychology, literature…) that we don’t understand … It’s hard to be a doctor or an engineer or key grip if you don’t know what the words mean, because learning the words is the same thing as learning the concepts.” Dang!
Some vocab-growing benefits include:
- Sharpening your communication
- Becoming a better speaker
- Becoming a better writer
- Get to the point faster
- Improving/clearing up your thinking
- Improving your memory functions
- Improving your self-confidence
- in turn, improving your self-esteem
So how do you go about this vocab-building as a busy, working adult? Easy:
- Read! Books, blogs, work stuff
- Use a thesaurus (carefully) when writing
- Learn word roots and/or the history of words
- Download a vocab/word app
- Subscribe to a word-of-the-day email (like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one)
Now go learn some words! (Just don’t go all circumlocution on me.)
