An individual’s grasp on their own mother tongue can be an indicator of how well-read and intelligent they are. When you initiate a conversation with another party, your mental repertoire of words is what helps you render your thoughts eloquently, so that you can perfectly express your thoughts or opinions without being misunderstood. Simply put, increasing your vocabulary can help you communicate with your peers better, while it also helps ameliorate your professional image when you present yourself to a new employer. Without further ado, here are six reasons why your vocabulary matters in the social realm.
- Self-Confidence
Increasing your vocabulary can have a positive impact on your self-image, especially in situations where you’re required to speak. It’s natural for you to have plenty of scrambled thoughts in your head that only you can perfectly understand.
And once you’re compelled to render those thoughts into comprehensible speech, you may find yourself stuttering frequently, or feel that you’re incapable of expressing your thoughts at all. This is common amongst people who “can’t find the right words,” simply because they don’t have enough vocabulary in their mental dictionary. Increasing your vocabulary can help make you feel more confident in your speech and opinions.
- Intelligence
The process of constantly learning new vocabulary is usually done through activities such as reading, or playing thought-provoking games. These activities help exercise your brain, which can increase gray matter and keep your neurons active and healthy. In other words, learning new vocabulary can make you more intelligent, and keep your brain cells from deteriorating as you age.
If you’re unsure how to do that, it’s as simple as reading or playing games that involve word-play such as Scrabble. To many people, such board games can be challenging to play, especially if you don’t have the vocabulary to win, which is why unscrambling tools can actually help. An easy way to learn new words through the game as a beginner is using a tool like this for advantage; the more frequently you use these helper tools, the better you’ll get at playing the game. In a few weeks’ time, you’ll find that you’ve learned a long list of new words.
- Social Situations
A huge part of being socially intelligent relies on how capable you are in communicating with another party. Your vocabulary helps you understand different concepts, and helps you understand another person’s way of speaking. Knowing a myriad of descriptive words can also help you express your emotions better to your friends or partner, which can help strengthen your social bonds, and avoid any conflict that may result from misunderstandings.
- Self-understanding and Expression
Increasing your vocabulary doesn’t always have to be about your relationship with other people. Learning new words through conversations, documentaries, or reading can help you understand yourself better, and aid you in learning to express your ideas and motives more eloquently. In your learning process, you’ll often come across words that help you understand emotions or thoughts that you could never find the words to describe. This can help you become more emotionally and mentally mature.
- Professional Meetings
Do you have self-diagnosed social anxiety, or do you lack the linguistic ability to talk about your compelling ideas? In professional meetings, it’s important for you to know the right words that can help you describe a strategy or idea to your peers and your boss. Otherwise, you may have a very compelling idea dismissed, or have it picked up by a peer who better expresses the idea, and ends up taking credit for it. Always work on picking up new vocabulary related to your field or career. You can do that by reading business newspapers and magazines or watching documentaries.
- Conflict Resolution
You may not have a combative personality, but it’s natural to find yourself in a verbal conflict every now and then, either with your significant other, or with friends and professional peers. Conflicts can end very badly if miscommunication is involved. Having a vast repertoire of vocabulary can help you pacify even the most heated arguments by using words with neutral or positive connotations, instead of words that make an argument take an ugly turn.
Holding your own in an argument can be challenging if you can’t find the right words to describe your thoughts and opinions. Writing emails, and presenting yourself to professional peers can also be a hassle when your vocabulary is limited. Once you get a stronger grasp on your language, you’ll notice how much more confident you are in speaking, and expressing your thoughts. Follow our simple guide, and you’ll see drastic results in no time.
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