How do you people know so many words?

[Skyhilist]

Seriously the vocabulary of people on the site is insane compared to everyone else I'm in contact with. And I think "oh they're older they have more experience" but then it's like holy shit these people are barely older than me, how do they know so many damn words? And I read a good deal ya know, but I go on this site and feel like damn, I really need to learn to english.

[BIXX]

Seriously the vocabulary of people on the site is insane compared to everyone else I'm in contact with. And I think "oh they're older they have more experience" but then it's like holy shit these people are barely older than me, how do they know so many damn words? And I read a good deal ya know, but I go on this site and feel like damn, I really need to learn to english.


I dunno. I think it just clicked one day for me, I started retaining new words easier and more effectively.

Also because I primarily in contact with leftists and post-leftists so it's common usage for me (in those areas).

One thing that I try to avoid is using over complicated words when writing theory and general pieces as I feel it can alienate people.

Edit to add: don't feel pressured to lean a bunch of fancy jargon. It's really not important (as long as you aren't in contact with elitist assholes).

[Fourth Internationalist]

The users of this site have a complicated and wide vocabulary? In what way?

[Sabot Cat]

Assuming this as true, my explanation for why the average RevLeft user could have a broader vocabulary than most people you interact with on a daily basis, or myself for that matter is as follows: one is usually not convinced of revolutionary leftist ideals through film, television, radio, or peers in the English speaking world, at least not in a direct manner, because the media is almost entirely controlled by the ruling bourgeois. Thus, aside from or in addition to independently attaining class conscious due to events in their lives, those who uphold these philosophies have often been convinced of their validity or desirability through reading about them. This could be online or otherwise, but you'll notice that being told to read the relevant literature, or quotes therein, are fairly common. In order to even navigate the political trajectory of the revolutionary left that's represented here, one often has to be acquainted with the works of a broad set of thinkers, and considering the underlying passion almost everyone here have for these topics, those who don't do the research do so at their own peril.

[Art Vandelay]

I don't know if people on this site necessarily have a large vocabulary, I suppose that some do, but just whenever you come across a word you don't know, look it up. My step dad always carried a dictionary in his truck, for precisely that reason and he kinda instilled the same habit in me.

[bcbm]

chomp

[reb]

I think that answer you are looking for is that most users of this site are college students. If you are interested in creating a larger vocabulary then there are some decent books you can get that teach you roots of words and then there associated endings and beginnings.

As a piece of related trivia, Charlie Chaplin always felt disadvantaged for not being able to go to college so he would read the dictionary all the time. His letters are filled with all of these long and complicated words.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

i was a pretentious child with few friends and a lot of books who grew up into a nerdish adult with aims to cloister himself in academia and comfortable irrelevence.

[tallguy]

Seriously the vocabulary of people on the site is insane compared to everyone else I'm in contact with. And I think "oh they're older they have more experience" but then it's like holy shit these people are barely older than me, how do they know so many damn words? And I read a good deal ya know, but I go on this site and feel like damn, I really need to learn to english.
Big words or an esoteric use of language do not necessarily equate to big ideas. Indeed, often, the reverse may be the case. That is to say, big words and esoteric language may sometimes be used as a form of verbal camouflage.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I dont think I have a big vocabulary but what vocabulary I do have is from reading all the time. Unfortunately The problem that accompanies picking up new words from text is that I frequently pronounce those new words incorrectly which is always embarrassing.

[Quail]

I don't have a particularly good vocabulary and I think it's because I don't read as much (fiction) as I would like to any more. I know communist jargon because it comes up a lot in meetings or articles that I read so I look into it if I don't know or understand what something means.


I dont think I have a big vocabulary but what vocabulary I do have is from reading all the time. Unfortunately The problem that accompanies picking up new words from text is that I frequently pronounce those new words incorrectly which is always embarrassing.
I think everyone is guilty of this from time to time. Or at least, I have been.

[Sasha]

I (used to) read a massive ammount of books and articles, and i watch bbc broadcasts with subtitles for the hearing impaired.

[Comrade #138672]

Because communists (especially Marxists) are smart.

[Tenka]

Mostly I think it's the prolixity of the "required reading" leaving a lasting impression. I can't even bring myself to finish Capital vol.1 though, notwithstanding that its freely available translation is in an English with which I'm quite familiar due to fiction-reading. Economics is a boring subject!

Also could be that smarties are just drawn to revolutionary leftyism.

[Ele'ill]

wit is a favorite part of communication, clarity can be also I think both are important especially with subjects that come up on this forum

punctuation on the other hand who gives a shit

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Me thinks the OP just has hangs around with too many facebook-texters, thus any the use of even rather prosaic and commonplace words will seem like an extraordinary and outré event.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

I think language is fun and my personal lexicon should be as spicey as I am.

[Taters]

perspicacious

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

we get new words by osmosis every time Miguel makes another post about dialectics.

[Skyhilist]

I don't know if people on this site necessarily have a large vocabulary, I suppose that some do, but just whenever you come across a word you don't know, look it up. My step dad always carried a dictionary in his truck, for precisely that reason and he kinda instilled the same habit in me.

I actually already do this every time I hear a new word, which only makes it all the more embarrassing that I've still already had to look up like 4 words from this thread alone (man of which I know I've looked up before). Not sure if I'm just slow at retaining information or what.

[Skyhilist]

Me thinks the OP just has hangs around with too many facebook-texters, thus any the use of even rather prosaic and commonplace words will seem like an extraordinary and outré event.

Do you always assume the worst of people?

[Skyhilist]

I dont think I have a big vocabulary but what vocabulary I do have is from reading all the time. Unfortunately The problem that accompanies picking up new words from text is that I frequently pronounce those new words incorrectly which is always embarrassing.

Reminds me of the way I used to pronounce 'bourgeois' when I was just first reading it: bore-gee-oize

[tallguy]

Me thinks the OP just has hangs around with too many facebook-texters, thus any the use of even rather prosaic and commonplace words will seem like an extraordinary and outré event.Oooooh..... and I just bet that makes you feel all clever and superior doesn't it?

[tachosomoza]

My mom used to make me read the dictionary.

[tachosomoza]

Oooooh..... and I just bet that makes you feel all clever and superior doesn't it?

It should make them feel like a rude asshole but their brain is broken.

[tallguy]

It should make them feel like a rude asshole but their brain is broken.Yep, To be honest, I am fed up to the back teeth of hearing shit about how the "facebook" generation are crap because of this or crap because of that. Our alienated, atomised, psychologically battered young people need all the building up they can get. They need empowering, Not being constantly told how superficial they are and how ineffectual they are by self-righteous, ideologically holier-than-thou smart-arses.

And so, hearing that kind of smug, self-satisfied, supercilious shit being spouted on somewhere like here, of all places, really makes me sick. And I say all of that whilst simultaneously not being able to stand Face-Book myself.

[Tenka]

I don't believe in a "facebook generation" myself but people who spend a lot of time on facebook in general suck badly at actual communication. My mother is a case in point and she's nearly 50! And I know this is an unfair generalisation, but it doesn't matter. I can generalise about it all I want. What you gonna do, defriend me?

[brigadista]

Some of the posts on this site are so academic and wordy they lose all meaning - tbh I skip them because I am not a teacher marking papers

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

thesaurus.com

Always open in another tab.

[Skyhilist]

thesaurus.com

Always open in another tab.

No that's the sad thing, I do this too. I literally look up every single word I hear that I don't know, but apparently I must just be really bad at storing the words in my long term memory.

[#FF0000]

No that's the sad thing, I do this too. I literally look up every single word I hear that I don't know, but apparently I must just be really bad at storing the words in my long term memory.

I remember some saying that you have to use a word so many times so that it's committed to memory -- like ten or so. I don't know if it's true but if you make an effort to expand your vocabulary and use new words you find, it'll happen.

[human strike]

How do we set ourselves apart as special and better if norms can understand what we're talking about?

[motion denied]

one must be fairly wordy to graduate

[AnaRchic]

A large vocabulary comes primarily from intensive reading. All throughout high school, starting when I first discovered Anarchism in 9th grade, I read an insane amount of books and essays on everything from political theory and sociology to evolutionary biology and philosophy.

If you are constantly exposed to academic language, eventually you tend to pick it up and integrate it into your own vocabulary. Shit I think I read TOO much at such a young age and missed out on some valuable life experience as a result.

I actually read less, and a live a whole lot more, nowadays. At this point in my life I've found a perfect balance of intellectual and personal pursuits. Anarchism as a social and political theory is, for me, simply an extension of Anarchism as a personal orientation to life.
At this point actions have a lot more meaning for me than abstractions. Its too tempting for many leftists to lapse into a form of intellectual masturbation, rather than endeavoring to live out their ideals in the here and now.