Do you know words determine everything about you?
I want to let you in on why we must learn about them -especially those we use. Dabble in how we can go about learning them and get us to find simple understanding in the most complex of matters.
A wordy discovery
I thought i had stumble upon the insight independently. Prior to my realization, i had tried to shut the words of my mind so as to be able to "focus on visualizing".
If you have ever tried to shut the mental chatter of your mind and simultaneously tried to bring up a "visual" to "ize" upon, you know it's a herculean task.
One day, as I laid in my bed wriggling with visuals that refused to stay put because of words that lent themselves to interpreting them, a loud voice screamed fuck this shit. Luckily, no one heard it. After all, I was in my room and my mouth was shut the whole time.
I let the chatter run amok. It felt great, until it began to stray into undesirable territory. The process of dragging it to desirable territory developed into just talking to myself. My mouth remained close. For some reason, the mental chatter died down, and something refreshing happened. Streams of images effortlessly made way to my consciousness, following the words and matching what the words represented. The AHA moment soon followed!... Words cause images in the mind, not the other way round. Words make up the vehicle we use to think
Consequently, I spent the next few days basking in the glory of "my discovery". I just had to resume my not-so-bad habit of reading. And, there it was, written in a book [1] first published in 1959. Quote:
Why should you learn about words?
We use words to produce thought and the arrangements of thoughts. So, imagine a case where the conception we had of a particular word was wrong or incomplete. If that word was a fundamental part of our individual belief system, the system would produce outputs that turned out to be wrong.
As an example, think of money. It is a word a majority of people misconceive. Money - as I have come to learn and discuss here - means medium of exchange.
I had thought it meant cash. Although not untrue, that meaning was incomplete.
Consider another example. A personal example in which I felt I knew the meaning of the word engineer. I had studied engineering for five years - six, if i want to consider the 11 months+ strikes. So, I assumed I knew the meaning of the word:
Last two weeks, in the spirit of doing the best with what i have the best way i can. I decided to let go of my ego and check the meaning of the word engineer. My discovery was a huge blow to my ego.
An engineer is someone who solves problems [FULL STOP!]
A friend had hinted at this definition back in school. But, went on to cloud it with words much like the one i had ripped out of text. Since i couldn't marry how his definition could be used to solve problems, I dismissed the definition before it led into deep states of confusion.
Vocabulary.com went on to say that an engineer is someone who designs. This made more sense to me and since replaced my definition of an engineer as someone who loved to tinker with engines. I could identify with someone who solved problems and used scientific knowledge to bring about this end.
The assumption was and is the problem. We assume we understand what words mean and know how they apply. This tampers with our definition of things and how we see the world. Clarity on any subject comes from understanding. Understanding comes from knowledge. And, knowledge comes from experience and learning.
How to learn words
William Zinsser [3] gives one way to improve your understanding of words. He writes:
An additional way to understand words is to analyze it. Break and loosen it to its simplest sense where it still retains its meaning.
To do this, hyphen-ate words you are trying to understand. Refer to a table of prefixes, suffixes and their meaning. And, see how the prefix or/and suffix relate to the root word.
Hyphenating works for words with more than one syllable. But, doesn't apply to all words with more than one syllable. “Hyphen” for instance does not need to be hyphenated
Conclusion
Words shape everything we know. Shape everything you are by learning what words mean, how they can be applied and how they apply to you.
................................................
Post Written by: P. W. Uduk
................................................
Photo Source: http://www.jamesprescott.co.uk
Excerpts: 1. The Magic of Thinking Big, (David J. Schwartz), Fireside Edition, pg., 78.
2. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering.
3. On Writing Well, (William Zinsser), 25th Anniversary Edition, pg., 35.
I want to let you in on why we must learn about them -especially those we use. Dabble in how we can go about learning them and get us to find simple understanding in the most complex of matters.
A wordy discovery
I thought i had stumble upon the insight independently. Prior to my realization, i had tried to shut the words of my mind so as to be able to "focus on visualizing".
If you have ever tried to shut the mental chatter of your mind and simultaneously tried to bring up a "visual" to "ize" upon, you know it's a herculean task.
One day, as I laid in my bed wriggling with visuals that refused to stay put because of words that lent themselves to interpreting them, a loud voice screamed fuck this shit. Luckily, no one heard it. After all, I was in my room and my mouth was shut the whole time.
I let the chatter run amok. It felt great, until it began to stray into undesirable territory. The process of dragging it to desirable territory developed into just talking to myself. My mouth remained close. For some reason, the mental chatter died down, and something refreshing happened. Streams of images effortlessly made way to my consciousness, following the words and matching what the words represented. The AHA moment soon followed!... Words cause images in the mind, not the other way round. Words make up the vehicle we use to think
Consequently, I spent the next few days basking in the glory of "my discovery". I just had to resume my not-so-bad habit of reading. And, there it was, written in a book [1] first published in 1959. Quote:
Here is something very basic: We do not think in words and phrases. We think only in pictures and or images. Words are the raw materials of thought. When spoken or read, that amazing instrument, the mind, automatically converts words and phrases into mind pictures. Each word, each phrase, creates a slightly different mind picture.I soon recovered from having my thrill of discovery dashed. The excitement that someone thought the discovery was valid overshadowed the disappointment. It didn't matter that it was not mine. What mattered is that I could use it.
Why should you learn about words?
We use words to produce thought and the arrangements of thoughts. So, imagine a case where the conception we had of a particular word was wrong or incomplete. If that word was a fundamental part of our individual belief system, the system would produce outputs that turned out to be wrong.
As an example, think of money. It is a word a majority of people misconceive. Money - as I have come to learn and discuss here - means medium of exchange.
I had thought it meant cash. Although not untrue, that meaning was incomplete.
Consider another example. A personal example in which I felt I knew the meaning of the word engineer. I had studied engineering for five years - six, if i want to consider the 11 months+ strikes. So, I assumed I knew the meaning of the word:
they are people who studied engineering in a higher institution. And, Engineering [2] is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.It doesn't take a genius to figure out the purely intellectual nature of that definition. It was literally ripped out of one the numerous engineering text i had encountered, crammed for any moment a lecturer tried to be funny. But, on a deep level, it said nothing to me.
Last two weeks, in the spirit of doing the best with what i have the best way i can. I decided to let go of my ego and check the meaning of the word engineer. My discovery was a huge blow to my ego.
An engineer is someone who solves problems [FULL STOP!]
A friend had hinted at this definition back in school. But, went on to cloud it with words much like the one i had ripped out of text. Since i couldn't marry how his definition could be used to solve problems, I dismissed the definition before it led into deep states of confusion.
Vocabulary.com went on to say that an engineer is someone who designs. This made more sense to me and since replaced my definition of an engineer as someone who loved to tinker with engines. I could identify with someone who solved problems and used scientific knowledge to bring about this end.
The assumption was and is the problem. We assume we understand what words mean and know how they apply. This tampers with our definition of things and how we see the world. Clarity on any subject comes from understanding. Understanding comes from knowledge. And, knowledge comes from experience and learning.
How to learn words
William Zinsser [3] gives one way to improve your understanding of words. He writes:
[...] get in the habit of using dictionaries. [...] If you have any doubt of what a word means, look it up. Learn its etymology and notice what curious branches its original root has put forth. See if it has any meanings you didn't know it had.Even though he addresses writers in the book, i believe it applies to anyone who uses language to think - in this case English language.
An additional way to understand words is to analyze it. Break and loosen it to its simplest sense where it still retains its meaning.
To do this, hyphen-ate words you are trying to understand. Refer to a table of prefixes, suffixes and their meaning. And, see how the prefix or/and suffix relate to the root word.
Hyphenating works for words with more than one syllable. But, doesn't apply to all words with more than one syllable. “Hyphen” for instance does not need to be hyphenated
Conclusion
Words shape everything we know. Shape everything you are by learning what words mean, how they can be applied and how they apply to you.
................................................
Post Written by: P. W. Uduk
................................................
Photo Source: http://www.jamesprescott.co.uk
Excerpts: 1. The Magic of Thinking Big, (David J. Schwartz), Fireside Edition, pg., 78.
2. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering.
3. On Writing Well, (William Zinsser), 25th Anniversary Edition, pg., 35.
How do deaf and dump people think when they havent heard any word?
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