Do you ever think having a strong vocabulary is kind of a curse for speech?

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Originally Posted by cinderblock

Presentations are about recitation. I'm talking about improv.

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Ooo... improve. Can't help you there!


But I can--remember your audience.

If you're not speaking to the concerns of your audience, your audience isn't listening. If your audience isn't listening, they've ceased being your audience.

Don't get nerved up about the daily stuff. Getting nerved up is actually going to make it worse, if anything, so stop thinking about it. Sounds more like an idiomatic expression thing than a vocabulary thing, per se. Some people have minds that are better wired for speech without figurative expressions and idioms like that. Think of it more like a charming quirk that would set you apart from other people. You still find a word that works and get your point across. All you're going to do is frustrate yourself getting frustrated over this difficulty recalling idioms spontaneously though.

Anyone who's going to judge you for being so specific about word choice might not be the greatest person to hang with. Most people are pretty understanding about these things. That's not to say that you can say "It's not rocket surgery" without getting some laughs and funny faces though. Some people are going to be douchebags and tease you if you consistently switch your idioms, but most people aren't douchebags and will catch on. You're just quirky, in such a case, and so long as you don't let it sour your demeanor, people are going to forgive it, for the most part. It's much easier said than done.

Quite the twist over apparently.

I was one of the English-vocab wizards back in high school because I played video games.

Then when I studied in an English-speaking country, my passive English didn't do much and had to learn it like native babies do that I even forgotten some words from my mothertongue.

I thought I was reaching a whole new level, until writing unveiled the reality that I'm still currently at bottom level vocab.

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Originally Posted by cinderblock

If you read my original post, this was never about remembering big bad SAT words that nobody knows. I'm talking about common words that I fail to recall in conversations. It's a very OCD quandary on my part. For example just today, I forgot the word "happy medium," so I had to use the word "settlement." I also forgot the word "dredge" in "dredge up the past," so I said "dig up the past." It's just little things here and there that don't matter in the greater scheme, but everytime it happens, I get a little deflated. Anyway, minor stuff. But it appears this thread has set a table for a deeper angst about writers who rely on rare, antiquated words.

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Oh. See, I figured this was a writing forum, so you musta been talking about writing.
The conversation forum is called Facebook. :tennis:

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Originally Posted by seigfried007

Don't get nerved up about the daily stuff. Getting nerved up is actually going to make it worse, if anything, so stop thinking about it. Sounds more like an idiomatic expression thing than a vocabulary thing, per se. Some people have minds that are better wired for speech without figurative expressions and idioms like that. Think of it more like a charming quirk that would set you apart from other people. You still find a word that works and get your point across. All you're going to do is frustrate yourself getting frustrated over this difficulty recalling idioms spontaneously though.

Anyone who's going to judge you for being so specific about word choice might not be the greatest person to hang with. Most people are pretty understanding about these things. That's not to say that you can say "It's not rocket surgery" without getting some laughs and funny faces though. Some people are going to be douchebags and tease you if you consistently switch your idioms, but most people aren't douchebags and will catch on. You're just quirky, in such a case, and so long as you don't let it sour your demeanor, people are going to forgive it, for the most part. It's much easier said than done.

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Absolutely, everything you said encapsulates the approach I'm trying to put into practice.

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Originally Posted by Ralph Rotten

Oh. See, I figured this was a writing forum, so you musta been talking about writing.
The conversation forum is called Facebook. :tennis:

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Most of my Facebook friends are just average people with average vocab. I appealed to fellow writers, because writers have the strongest vocabulary. In any case, I don't mind the thread evolving and expanding in other directions.

I wad kidding you. Ergo the :single_eye:

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Originally Posted by Sir-KP

Quite the twist over apparently.

I was one of the English-vocab wizards back in high school because I played video games.

Then when I studied in an English-speaking country, my passive English didn't do much and had to learn it like native babies do that I even forgotten some words from my mothertongue.

I thought I was reaching a whole new level, until writing unveiled the reality that I'm still currently at bottom level vocab.

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Hey, Sir-KP, I would have known you weren't a native English speaker by your writing, had you not mentioned it.

Good work, KP.

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Originally Posted by Megan Pearson

Hey, Sir-KP, I would have known you weren't a native English speaker by your writing, had you not mentioned it.

Good work, KP.

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Oops.

That should read, "would have not known..."

Those triple negatives tripped me up. :smile2:

Sorry, KP, I hope what I meant came across anyway!
(I think it did, from your response.)