Your Most Powerful Conversation Tool: Words
Without using words, you can communicate. But you can't converse.
Seems obvious, right? Still don't believe it? Try conversing with someone whose language you don't know. You can gesture and point about simple matters, you can make sounds. But you can't express subtle or complex ideas. Mainly, your nonverbal expression just modify your words.
That words are the most powerful tools is often taken for granted. For example, I've observed that few conversers intentionally learn more and better words. Instead, they pick up a few new words for their vocabulary by happenstance, usually by listening or reading.
Why is a large, precise vocabulary so critical for excellent conversation?
- An extensive vocabulary aids your expressions and communication.
- Your linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with your thinking vocabulary. When you can make clearer distinctions, you can think more clearly.
- You will probably be judged by others based on your vocabulary. (How smart are you? How educated are you? How knowledgeable are you?)
Everyone reading this article has multiple vocabularies. For example:
●a reading vocabulary (all the words you can recognize when reading, and this is generally the largest)
● a listening vocabulary (all the words you can recognize when listening to speech, the second largest)
●a speaking vocabulary (all the words you can use in speaking, the smallest of the three.) As a converser making spontaneous talk, all your words must be readily available to you.
An average high school graduate has a vocabulary of approximately 10,000 words and an average college graduate about 20,000 words. (The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, contains over 170,000 words in current use.)
If you want to systematically build your vocabulary, here are some ways:
- Use a good dictionary to look up words you didn't understand.
- Spend a few minutes regularly browsing the dictionary and writing down interesting, useful words you didn't know. (Not fancy "50-cent words" to show off, just ordinary but powerful words.) Then use them in speaking or writing so you'll own them in your verbal tool kit.
- Read widely, especially in books, magazines, and newspapers aimed at an educated audience. (You'll almost always find new words you didn't know.)
- Listen to people who have an extensive vocabulary. If you can't figure out the meanings from their talk, ask them, or make a note to look them up later.
- Create a vocabulary game for your family so that, taking turns, one member finds and teaches the others a useful new word by defining it and using it in example sentences. Soon your dictionary will feel like a fun and friendly resource.
- Subscribe to A Word A Day newsletter, http://wordsmith.org. "Explore the magic of words." As you become curious about words and learn their origins, your vocabulary will grow. Published by my friend Anu Garg in Seattle, this is the most respected newsletter of its kind on the internet. (And it's FREE.)
If you want to build your physical strength, you have to work out. If you want to build the strength of your vocabulary, you have to put some energy and effort toward that goal.
Be like the great song and dance man, Eddie Cantor, (1892-1964) who said
"Words fascinate me. For me, browsing in a dictionary is like being turned loose in a bank."