Jargon impresses people who already get it. Plain words help everybody else.
GRATITUDE
WHAT THIS MEANS
Specialist words are efficient among specialists and a wall to everybody else. Using them outside the group buys you a vague sense of authority and costs your listener the content, and most people will not ask, so the information simply never arrives. Nobody has ever been impressed into understanding something.
Explain the thing you know best to somebody who does not share your vocabulary, and notice where you have to stop and substitute. Keep that plain version for next time. If you cannot say it in ordinary words, that tells you something about how well you know it.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which special words do you use mainly to prove you belong?
MORE IN COMMUNICATION & LANGUAGE
- Jumping in with “same!” feels like connection. Sometimes it just steals the story they were telling.
- Translating for your family means picking words for two people at once. That’s harder than any vocab test.
- ASL isn’t English on hands. It has its own grammar. Every language deserves to be learned on its own terms.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.