Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: SLANG (05/14/20)
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TITLE: DON’T WASTE A STUPID WORD | Previous Challenge Entry
By John Custer
05/15/20 -
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“My darn bike is falling apart!” If Tom had said, “The rear brake of my bike was missing a pad so my ride home from work could be more exciting than I wanted it to be,” then I would have known more about his frustration.
Melissa used slang to make an impression on her friends when she said, “I never feel comfortable wearing this darn dress.” Really? How would it have sounded if she had said, “I loved this dress when it was new, but now it is too tight.” Many of us could relate to that!
I was told that if you need to use slang to describe something, then you need to expand your vocabulary. Seriously, if I said, “there are many ways to express yourself without using slang,” it would not change the meaning of the sentence at all.
My speech teacher once said that you could communicate more effectively by how you read something. She illustrated her point by reciting the alphabet, raising her voice as if she was very upset or lowering it as if she was whispering. She was right; it was powerful. Try it. It’s fun. Politicians (and preachers) do this all the time. It has been said that the weaker the point, the more help is needed to make the point. (The temptation to make the obvious analogy is almost too much to resist.)
President Truman was a great communicator, but he used far more colorful words than slang. (There are many words he could have omitted to enhance his talks.) One of his printable quotes, however, was, “Being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.” * In this case he used humor to make his point.
Using a pause at the appropriate time is also an effective way to make a point. Now read the sentence this way, “There are many ways to express yourself without using………..slang.”
If you practice expressing yourself in a healthy way, it will help you to live an authentic life. Worded another way, people are more inclined to believe you if you don’t use slang to augment what you say. Have you ever had a salesman try to sell you something and you just did not trust him and you weren’t quite sure why? He may have used flattery or used too many adjectives. Irregardless he was not communicating authentically.
All of us get frustrated occasionally, and are tempted to use slang to express our feelings. Maybe it would be helpful to write out our feelings, then we could express them more effectively. Be creative in how you express your feelings. Try art, music, writing, etc.
Probably the greatest communicator was Jesus. He said in Matthew 5:33 (NIV), “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’…….” In other words, you don’t need to swear by anything, or use slang to make what you say have more impact.
These are just a few ideas to help you communicate more effectively.
“Lord Jesus, help me to communicate more effectively, the way you did. Help me to avoid words like ‘god’, ‘gosh’, ‘heck’, ‘darn’, ‘freaking’, and the like to express myself so that I will come across as authentic.”
The Wit & Wisdom of Harry Truman, by Ralph Keyes, Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1995
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