The Art of Expression

I have been immersing myself into some different languages trying to revive what I learned in highschool. I would love for my kids to be at least bilingual someday!

What never ceases to amaze me is that, while English can be a difficult second language to learn, it is a very dull language. If one were to look in a dictionary, though, you could find a multitude of words that are hardly used anymore and if they were to be used no one would understand you! (Reminds me of the British expression " Don't you speak the Queen's English?!".)

What REALLY gets my goat is this so called "text speak". Really? Have we gotten so lazy that we need to make English more dull and less expressive than it is becoming? Expressions (if you can call them that) such as the following:
lol, brb, rotfl, txt, omw, imho. . .

In our technological world we have been hastening the demise of expressive English by inventing a type of short hand to be able to get more out of a text message, email, online chatting, forums, and so on and so forth.

In English you are happy, sad, mad, etc.

You are not a little happy, very happy, ecstatically happy. No, we have one word commonly used and that is "happy".

You are not a little sad, so/so, extremely sad. No, we are just "sad".

Even I am having a difficult time describing the emotions without the help of an adjective! So sad!

I am recommiting myself to discovering a new word every other day. Why not every day? Well, that is so the new word has time to soak in, used properly, and the correct definition remembered.

I am even more excited to learn a new language because it will help me to express myself (in a new language albeit) accurately and concisely without heavy use of adjectives! The expression just "is".

I also am getting away from using "text speak" and other forms of shorthand in emails, chatting and forums. I would rather give someone a solid "thank you" than a "ty,ty,ty".

It is pretty interesting that it is quickly becoming an art to be able to express yourself properly in English. If more of us people did that, English would become less dull and would become fun and expressive. Maybe if we were able to express ourselves better it would encourage more friendliness, neighborliness and community. Maybe by expressing ourselves better we would get off the computer and forge real, personal relationships with those around us instead of technologically superficial ones.

Maybe, just maybe by using an expanded vocabulary we would find our life circles expanding and finding it easier to have empathy for those around us. Big or small, old or young.

I don't know about you all, but I'm going for it and working on expanding my vocabulary and seeing what happens in a few years. Maybe we can turn the tide on the dull English full of shorthanded "text speak"!!!

Only time will tell!

KT