I want words smoother than silk, but little do I know.. - by 37637598
fett on 19/10/2009 at 21:49
INJECT A BRAIN IN YOURSELF DUH
ZylonBane on 19/10/2009 at 21:53
I consider it perfectly apropos that this thread was started by "37637598".
Maybe you should concentrate on learning new random numbers instead of new words.
Sulphur on 19/10/2009 at 22:38
read poetry
I recommend Alexander Pope, Milton, Wordsworth, and In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.
Two-headed boy
All floating in glass
The sun it has passed
Now it's blacker than black
I can hear as you tap on your jar
I am listening to hear where you are
I am listening to hear where you are
Two-headed boy
Put on Sunday shoes
And dance round the room to accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heart
Catching signals that sound in the dark
Catching signals that sound in the dark
We will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their clouds
It's not the complicated words you need, it's finding ways of stringing the ones you already know together in more skillful ways, ways that convey the shade and nuance and depth of whatever you want to convey.
Firstly, though, you need that shade and nuance and depth. Big words coupled with empty thoughts don't often paint the most interesting of pictures.
Sulphur on 19/10/2009 at 22:53
Getting stoned and listening to existentialism-drenched '90s indie music lyrics is the most mind-opening vocabulary-expanding exercise there is
well, apart from getting stoned and reading Alexander Pope at any rate
Martin Karne on 19/10/2009 at 22:55
"Your barbaric ways are affecting my performance, please leave my presence immediately, before I'll indulge myself into some arcane arts and make you vanish with a wand, thank you."
Sulphur on 19/10/2009 at 23:31
telling location you've got there, chief
Oh, fine.
Listen, numbers, if you want to get better at speaking but don't want to read, do it the normal way: find people who're articulate and willing to talk nineteen-to-dozen and engage with you in conversation. Preferably not jerks.
You may struggle initially, but you will learn. Ask them to explain shit, or look it up yourself. It's what we all do. You want to speak better, you got to learn from people who speak well.
Failing which, if you can't find people around you to learn from, watch/read stuff by intelligent, expressive, and articulate people like Carl Sagan (not necessarily just scientists, but just saying - Sagan had a very well-rounded worldview). Absorb and understand, then emulate.
Once you do that, you'll pick up ways to better express yourself and initiate thought processes you'd never have come upon by yourself. It's a gradual sort of thing though, so don't try to rush it.
PeeperStorm on 20/10/2009 at 01:42
If you're going to read books, try a Jack Vance novel or three. He comes up with crap that you'd swear he's making up, but it turns out to be actual words. Of course he occasionally makes up some words too, so you might want to keep a good dictionaly handy.
Kolya on 20/10/2009 at 06:26
It's not like neologisms were illegal. Heck, make up your own and let the devotchkas figure them out. Burgess style.
Gingerbread Man on 20/10/2009 at 20:52
That's actually something I have a LOT of fun doing. And I restructure grammar on the fly as well -- although really that's because I get confused with English sometimes and start trawling through Latin or Spanish or German or something I learned vaguely in school for the words. And then it ends up dog's breakfasting all up ins. :(
Although to be honest, my posts are pretty much verbatim transcriptions of my speech.
But yeah, you can't beat hearing and using the words in conversation. Shit, even watching Frasier episodes might give you some footing in some ways.
