Neglecting Our Wondrous Language

How today’s generation weakens our language.

 

It was interesting to learn about the influence the Germans, French, and Romans had on the English language in our world’s history. I have always learned in Spanish that there were many similarities between Spanish and English words because of their Latin foundation.

However, I would have never thought about all of those influences coming together to create the English language in the United Kingdom, especially the German influence. It makes me really think about all of the words there are in the world, and yet we as a people use so little of them. 

We need to go back to appreciating our language and cherishing what it can do for us.

That thought then brings me to how we speak today. It is sad, but the world has become such a fast-paced place that no one has a moment to sit and actually read, which I believe to be the only true activity that help with one’s range of vocabulary. This idea of hurrying was furthered in the reading we had. In the reading, “Digital Media Versus Analog Media,” it was frustrating to read about the way in which most people read online news articles today; they simply scan through from the title to the main details that elaborate upon what the title advertised.

Of course, this makes sense. We always have to be doing a million things at once, and that means that each thing we do only receives a portion of our full efforts. And, in a fast-paced world, there is such high demand for having the answer to the question IMMEDIATELY that no one can take the time to read all of the details in the article and all of the story told in a blog post.

This makes me wonder, with my own web writing, how I can write in a way that infuses more sophisticated vocabulary without losing my reader. My generation, specifically, continues to cut words down to a few letters like “u” and “nbd”, which stands for the entire phrase, “No big deal”.

In a fast-paced world, there is such high demand for having the answer to the question IMMEDIATELY that no one can take the time to read all of the details in the story.

We need to go back to appreciating our language and cherishing what it can do for us. I think that may be a challenge I try to take on, in which I try to write interesting material that grips the audience while exposing them to new words, new sounds, new ways of saying things that we already say, but they can learn to say them in a more sophisticated, poetic manner.