meaning, and also for words that are completely new.
For many adults, facing the fact that they ‘don’t know’ is disturbing. As a result they tend to try to avoid such situations. If you look at this ‘formula for behaviour’ for a moment, you will realize that it is a formula for disaster! If you only stay safely in areas that are completely known to you, and always avoid those that are not, what will you ever learn?
Nothing!
The baby is exactly the opposite. Why? Because a baby loves not knowing! Not knowing opens up the infinite opportunity for learning fresh, new and exciting things. The baby is purely ignorant, and ignorant (which comes from the Latin ‘ignorare’) simply means ‘to not know’. Realize that the more you know you know, the more you will know that there is still more to know! Approach your pursuit of new and fresh knowledge like a baby does – with enthusiasm and gusto!
Give Your Brain a Healthy Diet
Your brain survives on the four foods of Information, Nutrition, Oxygen and Love. One of your brain’s main sources of information is Vocabulary and Language. Therefore feed your brain a healthy diet of words, making sure that you ‘eat’ regularly, that your ‘diet’ is varied, that you constantly supply yourself with ‘fresh food’ and that you never ‘fast’ for too long. Sometimes it’s good to binge!
Learn From Your Mistakes
As with ignorance, many adults also are discomforted by and afraid of making mistakes, especially with words. They, mistakenly, think that this shows them to be slow, unintelligent and somehow not worthy.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
If you want to learn how to speak any vocabulary brilliantly, learn from the greatest language learners there are – babies and children. They seldom hide in the safety of words they know; their preference is to leap for the stars, and to make as many mistakes as are necessary to get there.
That is why they often prefer hard or ‘more difficult’ words: these give them a better game to play in acquiring them, and often lead to mistakes that are much more humorous and which provide many more belly laughs than the ‘correct’ ones!
We now know that mistakes are not an impediment to learning; mistakes are the golden pathway to learning.
Enjoy all of yours from now on …
Become Friends with Words
You bring your feelings and emotions more into play when you increase your Verbal Intelligence. Many people mistakenly think of words as ‘intelligent’, ‘analytical’, ‘hard’ and ‘cold’. And who would really want to have a relationship with anything (or anyone) that only had those qualities?
But words are in fact ‘wondrous’, ‘imaginative’, ‘sensual’, ‘sexy’, ‘warm’, ‘delicious’ and many other things which would make you lust after a relationship with anything or anyone possessing these qualities.
As soon as you start making friends with words, as babies do, they make friends with you, and allow you to meet, learn from and play with them much more rapidly and with thousands of times greater enjoyment and fun than before.
Persist in Your Pursuit of Verbal Power
Remember that one of the prime qualities used to describe the incredible intelligence and accomplishments both of babies and the great geniuses is that single word: persistence.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘persistence’ as meaning: ‘To continue firmly in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition; to continue to persist.’ It comes from the Latin ‘per’ and ‘sistere’ – ‘to stand firm’.
If you steadfastly pursue your goal of Verbal Intelligence, you will become much more Verbally Intelligent, and will approach the incredible skills of the baby and the genius in this area. Persist and you will overcome all obstacles to learning. Persist and your mistakes will turn into successes. Persist and you will acquire thousands of new word-friends. Persist!
The ideas in this chapter are summarized in Plate 9.
Word Power Booster Number 2
In this vocabulary booster section I introduce you to some fascinating adjectives. They will spice up your conversation, adding richness and depth to it. Choose the definition that you think is closest to the correct meaning from the four options given for each.
1 DIDACTIC (dy-dák-tik)
2 (a) Teacher-like; instructive
3 (b) Aggressive
4 (c) Explosive
5 (d) Like an extinct bird
6 SURREPTITIOUS (surep-tísh-us)
7 (a) Grey in colour
8 (b) Serrated
9 (c) Stealthy or secret
10 (d) Completely silent
11 HERETICAL (heh-rét-ikal)
12 (a) Deserving of punishment
13 (b) At the present time
14 (c) Greek behaviour
15 (d) Revolutionary; contrary to the official/established viewpoint
16 COPIOUS (kópe-eus)
17 (a) Able
18 (b) Abundant; plentiful
19 (c) Religious
20 (d) Relating to the police
21 IMPERATIVE (im-pé-rra-tif)
22 (a) Royal
23 (b) Relating to the empire
24 (c) Vital
25 (d) Strong
26 INEFFACEABLE (in-e-fáce-abul)
27 (a) To confront
28 (b) Incapable of being erased; indelible
29 (c) Female face
30 (d) Building
31 INESTIMABLE (in-ést-im-abul)
32 (a) Not enough time
33 (b) Priceless; immeasurable
34 (c) Unfriendly
35 (d) Timetable
36 UNPRECEDENTED (un-préss-e-den-ted)
37 (a) Never known or done before
38 (b) Description of dental procedures
39 (c) Damaged
40 (d) Before
