Okay, so you know me. I am a LOVER of vocabulary. I love how the use of extensive vocabulary can be not only beautiful but full of specific meaning that simpler words can't quite capture.
But MAN! Sometimes, people get all into themselves over a discussion and start using highly specialized jargon and extremely elitist language and I all I can think is, "You know what? You're not actually contributing to your meaning or this discussion with this language. All you're doing is cutting out the people who don't understand those words, and 'proving' how superior you are."
I think that is total crap.
I had entered into an awesome and friendly discussion on a friend's FB page about evolution vs creation and if they were contradictory. It was really cool to see a FRIENDLY, open discussion on that subject, which can get really sticky! But ultimately, two guys ended up commandeering the whole discussion with their stilted language and oily attitudes and debates and definition arguments.
I bowed out. Because I don't think that helps anyone. By the time you've reached that point, you are limiting the conversation to two people who already are firmly entrenched in their opinions, and no one else reading is going to learn anything from it because they're using their language as a gatekeeper to filter out anyone not "qualified" to understand.
Well, here's what I think: use specialized language when it best serves your meaning, but in a situation like that? Explain for those who don't get it, if you've got to use those words! Right now is an exciting time where people who failed out of high school can get the equivalent of a college education online for free if they're disciplined enough, because the gatekeeping barriers of knowledge have been breaking down. The internet and social media have their down sides, but ultimately they've become the modern parallel to translating the Bible from Latin to English (William Tyndale is my hero <3) - people can check it out for themselves instead of relying on the words of those from the ivory towers.
Well-educated people are sharing what they know casually and kindly. Previously uneducated people are learning quickly and providing incredible insight. Teenage girls, plural, are coming out with incredible inventions and discoveries, like (for example) a water wheel that also powers an mp3 player so women who used to have to walk for miles with a pot of water for their home can now carry gallons more AND learn as they go! People are inventing cheap microscopes literally made of paper so doctor's offices in poverty-stricken countries and areas can properly diagnose and treat their patients.
Some people feel threatened by the slew of free-flowing information, as if it somehow might invalidate their very expensive degree-obtained knowledge. I don't think it does. Some things you can only learn and understand by devoting so much time (and money!!!) to learning. But just because you did that doesn't mean you should use the way you speak to everyone else as a way to keep them out of the knowledge you gained. There doesn't need to be a division between the "wonderers" and the "instructors." We're all both.
Getting into an excited conversation with someone else who shares your specialized knowledge and feeling free to communicate with them is one thing. I do that all the time. Since finishing massage school I've been constantly using anatomy terms because they've become second nature to me.
But it is my hope that I will never, EVER, use those terms - that language - to purposely shut out people who haven't learned it. Or to make it seem like I'm somehow better than them. That's bull. I just happened to make a choice that brought me into a situation where I learned all of those things. And I'm happy to explain and share in layman's terms for anyone who cares to hear.
This has been an opinion.
Lauren out.
But MAN! Sometimes, people get all into themselves over a discussion and start using highly specialized jargon and extremely elitist language and I all I can think is, "You know what? You're not actually contributing to your meaning or this discussion with this language. All you're doing is cutting out the people who don't understand those words, and 'proving' how superior you are."
I think that is total crap.
I had entered into an awesome and friendly discussion on a friend's FB page about evolution vs creation and if they were contradictory. It was really cool to see a FRIENDLY, open discussion on that subject, which can get really sticky! But ultimately, two guys ended up commandeering the whole discussion with their stilted language and oily attitudes and debates and definition arguments.
I bowed out. Because I don't think that helps anyone. By the time you've reached that point, you are limiting the conversation to two people who already are firmly entrenched in their opinions, and no one else reading is going to learn anything from it because they're using their language as a gatekeeper to filter out anyone not "qualified" to understand.
Well, here's what I think: use specialized language when it best serves your meaning, but in a situation like that? Explain for those who don't get it, if you've got to use those words! Right now is an exciting time where people who failed out of high school can get the equivalent of a college education online for free if they're disciplined enough, because the gatekeeping barriers of knowledge have been breaking down. The internet and social media have their down sides, but ultimately they've become the modern parallel to translating the Bible from Latin to English (William Tyndale is my hero <3) - people can check it out for themselves instead of relying on the words of those from the ivory towers.
Well-educated people are sharing what they know casually and kindly. Previously uneducated people are learning quickly and providing incredible insight. Teenage girls, plural, are coming out with incredible inventions and discoveries, like (for example) a water wheel that also powers an mp3 player so women who used to have to walk for miles with a pot of water for their home can now carry gallons more AND learn as they go! People are inventing cheap microscopes literally made of paper so doctor's offices in poverty-stricken countries and areas can properly diagnose and treat their patients.
Some people feel threatened by the slew of free-flowing information, as if it somehow might invalidate their very expensive degree-obtained knowledge. I don't think it does. Some things you can only learn and understand by devoting so much time (and money!!!) to learning. But just because you did that doesn't mean you should use the way you speak to everyone else as a way to keep them out of the knowledge you gained. There doesn't need to be a division between the "wonderers" and the "instructors." We're all both.
Getting into an excited conversation with someone else who shares your specialized knowledge and feeling free to communicate with them is one thing. I do that all the time. Since finishing massage school I've been constantly using anatomy terms because they've become second nature to me.
But it is my hope that I will never, EVER, use those terms - that language - to purposely shut out people who haven't learned it. Or to make it seem like I'm somehow better than them. That's bull. I just happened to make a choice that brought me into a situation where I learned all of those things. And I'm happy to explain and share in layman's terms for anyone who cares to hear.
This has been an opinion.
Lauren out.
