Do I sound smart? Do I care?
May 1st, 2009Katie Yeakle, the Executive Director of AWAI, a copy writing organization, emailed members to tell us that:
“Bob Bly is celebrating the official launch of his new book, The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart: 1,200 Essential Words Every Sophisticated Person Should Be Able to Use…
The book is an entertaining guide to words that are fun to drop into your conversations … whether you’re at a cocktail party or not! I highly recommend you check it out.
You’ll get the spelling, pronunciation, a definition and – most importantly – usage of the word in a sentence, so you can get a real feel for the power of each word. Words like:
* disestablishmentarianism
* descant
* autodidactic
* genteel
* soliloquy
* and many, many more.”
I had to think for a moment. I can’t ever remember hearing those words in a conversation. Well maybe I’m not traveling in the right circles you say. Well, in the past 22 years I’ve interviewed U.S. Presidents, Congressmen, Rock Stars, Country Music Stars, Engineers, Doctors, Scientists and all manner of educated and uneducated people alike - and the only words I’ve heard were “genteel and solioquy.” I know. Because when I hear a word I don’t know, I stop the person and ask them what it means so I’ll anchor it in my mind with a sentence and context. I don’t mind appearing ignorant or uneducated. It enables the speaker to share their knowledge and teach me - raising their status, making them sound smart.
So when I got this email today I was a little taken aback. Are there 1,198 words out there I don’t know, or use? As a writer are these words I might use in a story? Or will they serve me better while playing a game of “Balderdash?” ( My favorite game in the entire world by the way).
Does it really matter if I “sound smart?” Will people think less of me if I just sound authentic? Or honest? or optimistic? Should I worry about sounding smart? I don’t think so. I certainly don’t care if I sound smart - in the sense that I know a lot of $20 words. I do worry that people might not think I sound caring. Or that I might not sound smart as in knowing what to do, or to say when a friend’s husband dies unexpectedly or their child is born with a birth defect, or they are diagnosed with cancer. That kind of smart - I want to know how to be. I want to sound smart in that I know how to talk to a mechanic without getting ripped off, or know how to politely decline an invitation or a poorly cooked casserole without hurting the invitee’s feelings. That’s the kind of smarts I want to sound like I have.
I want to sound smart enough to know that people come first, God is real, faith and hope are sometimes all people have and that you never squirt charcoal lighter fluid on a burning fire because one day it will flash back and burn you. I want to sound smart about knowing how to jump start a car without destroying the car battery, or how to change a tire. I want to sound smart about how to hold a widow sobbing with grief, a teenager devastated over the breakup with their first love, and how to hug the family members at a funeral so they really get it about how much I care and how sorry I am. That’s the kind of smart I want to be.
No slam on Bob or Katie. It just struck me as odd about how so many things appeal to our vanity of self and the needs we have to sound smart rather than be smart. Here’s hoping YOU feel smart today - in whatever way makes you happy.
