Work on your vocabulary!

[42_42_42]

I drove my 7th grade language arts students crazy with one phrase "go look it up". Any time they'd ask me what a word meant, I'd point to the dictionaries and say "go look it up." I figured if they actually had to go through the effort to look it up, it might stick.

[Mishi]

I drove my 7th grade language arts students crazy with one phrase "go look it up".

The worst part is that he is almost 14, was online and doesn't understand the concept of google-fu! I blame A-kon and his ilk. If my little cousin was listening to say, Slipknot, at least his vocabulary would be larger.

[arminius58]

I seem to be on the other side of this, I have to have people explain to me what certain pop culture and slang words mean. Sadly most of the people I work with are my own age and I still don't know what half of them mean.

[Merriweather]

This reminds me of the one radio show that does a skit called "extremely easy question"

Sometimes it is so easy they give the answer in the question and people still fail.
"If I buy a dozen donuts and get 12 donuts then give 3 donuts to my friend, How many donuts are in a dozen?"
Results 9, 15, 4, 3, 6, etc.

"Hello, we were calling because we were wondering if you could tell us which country George Washington was president of?"
Little background, this is an AMERICAN Radio show, GW was the FIRST president of our country. People still get it wrong.

My head starts hurting during the skit.

I was lucky, in the schools I went to (14 total by end of high school) there was usualy one teacher (along with several horrid examples) that actually went to great lengths to teach us the importance of reading.

Once, in Jr. Hi. (can't recall what subject it was) the teacher gave us a sheet of questions as a pop quiz, and stressed the most important thing was to read the entire paper before beginning, then follow instructions exactly - told us that several times. The paper started with various questions, then went on into things such as "walk to the blackboard and write this answer", whistle a song, etc. The very last thing was "now you've read this, write your name at the top of the page and do nothing else". Those of us who had read that far had a lot of fun watching the rest of the class make fools of themselves

In high school, a business teacher gave us another test to see how carefully we could read, as well. Questions such as "who is buried in Grant's tomb", what colour was George Washington's white horse, etc. The fail rate was amazing (I aced it, as I can and do read, LOL).

And while I'm being longwinded anyway, and the subject is words, what about people who haven't a clue what the word really is? My favourite example is cul de sac - you know, the little dead end roads in residential areas? At least twice I've seen directions on Craig's List on how to get to the "cuddle sack" they live on.

[Gidgetdigit]

I drove my 7th grade language arts students crazy with one phrase "go look it up". Any time they'd ask me what a word meant, I'd point to the dictionaries and say "go look it up." I figured if they actually had to go through the effort to look it up, it might stick.

I love you.

Thank God two of my three chidlren love to read. The third will read, but only non-fiction, and he has an amazing vocabulary nonetheless. Helps that he has been summa cum laude in his Latin class three years in a row.

It makes my family feel like a bunch of freaks. Sad.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I love you.

Thank God two of my three chidlren love to read. The third will read, but only non-fiction, and he has an amazing vocabulary nonetheless. Helps that he has been summa cum laude in his Latin class three years in a row.

It makes my family feel like a bunch of freaks. Sad.

I've felt like a bit of freak myself for years . . . I've been reading since I can remember and when I was in first grade, I already was using a 6th grade vocabulary (I had a grandmother who read anything she could get her hands on and I'm the same way.)

Double for being able to spell . . . which helps tremendously when writing on a fanfic piece. Must have been all those books that opened my imagination up, as well as watching tv.

[Pagan]

At least twice I've seen directions on Craig's List on how to get to the "cuddle sack" they live on.

I'd be inclined to give 'em that one as it is in a foreign language, but they should have heard here and there enough over the years.

I've felt like a bit of freak myself for years . . . I've been reading since I can remember and when I was in first grade, I already was using a 6th grade vocabulary (I had a grandmother who read anything she could get her hands on and I'm the same way.)

Double for being able to spell . . . which helps tremendously when writing on a fanfic piece. Must have been all those books that opened my imagination up, as well as watching tv.

I was pretty much reading by the time I went to 1st grade. Mainly because my parents took the time to read to me, mostly my dad. That was his way to get to spend a little time with me.

I drove one of my 6th grade teachers nuts, though. We'd have to write down a little synopsis of whatever book we were reading. Well, I'd be reading two or three books at once. Even though I had no problem keeping the stories straight, he was still very concerned about my reading and spoke to my parents about it at an open house. All we could ever figure out that his "concern" was was that he couldn't do the same thing.

I still read two/three books at once, along with assorted magazines and the newspaper.

[malmalthekiller]

This used to happen quite a bit with me. I don't consider myself extremely intelligent, but I love to read, and I did go through a 4-year University where my major was Communications and I did a lot of writing.

The way some people spell and type makes me want to die.

[Pagan]

The way some people spell and type makes me want to die.

You mean like articles in the newspaper?

[DemoDiva]

My husband thinks it's bizarre that I like to read 3 or 4 books at once. I think it's bizarre that he can motor through like 5 thick books a day, and still retain everything.

We're both happy that we read. ^_^

[Flying Grype]

I would think "urban" and "rural" would be common words. This video proves otherwise.

Pffff. When you're urban you don't have to know what rural means. Food comes from the store.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

"Tact" is a big word.

These days, 'tact' is a bigger concept.

Once, in Jr. Hi. (can't recall what subject it was) the teacher gave us a sheet of questions as a pop quiz, and stressed the most important thing was to read the entire paper before beginning, then follow instructions exactly - told us that several times. The paper started with various questions, then went on into things such as "walk to the blackboard and write this answer", whistle a song, etc. The very last thing was "now you've read this, write your name at the top of the page and do nothing else". Those of us who had read that far had a lot of fun watching the rest of the class make fools of themselves

Man, I remember having that test WAY back in Grade 4... He was a great teacher.

[Imogene]

"who is buried in Grant's tomb"
"cuddle sack"

No one's 'buried' in Grant's tomb, it's above ground.
The plural of cul de sac is actually culs de sac, thanks, Gilmore Girls.

i'll never forget the day i had to explain to someone what a "bough" is. in the middle of a college english class. oi.

Intro to College class at a community college, our final was to do a ten minute speech for the class, on anything we wanted. I presented a condensed version of a story I write (no, seriously, all the little stories are basically stream of consciousness bits of a larger narrative. It's all one massive work), and made the class visualize the story as it happened. Got 2 points off my score "for using big words".... WTF on it's own, but I went back over the presentation in my head, the only 'big' word I could remember using? Transformation.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Intro to College class at a community college...

Got 2 points off my score "for using big words".... WTF on it's own, but I went back over the presentation in my head, the only 'big' word I could remember using? Transformation.

Did the teacher forget that they were no longer teaching a third grade elementary school class?

[Elspeth]

Thank you all for proving to me that I am not strange about reading mutliple books at once. Though my hubby finds it very strange that I can read a book, be playing something on my computer and watching some on the tv all at the same tme and still be able to listen to him. What, I just mutli task really well :P

I never understood why people don't love to read. I also don't understand people not reading a loud what they have written. I tend to forget words when I am typing since my brain and fingers don't work at the same speed. And I had my Mom (the English Major) read my papers.


I just want to throw a dictionary at some people