Story time: ......words from a teacher can echo in the heads of their students forever..... I remember an instult one of my teachers said to me, "......Jeff your vocabulary is terrible, you don't sound intelligent when you speak......" hmm, as I remember it he then discovered I knew several four letter words......
I may have thought that teacher was a piece of shit, (that was not one of the four letter words I used with him.....) but he was right. My high school education lacked a lot, not because of my teachers or even my school..... no the issue was my lack of effort. Once I got to college, I began playing catch up, and that continues still today. For instance, last week my high school triplets got their summer reading list from school. The list contained 12 books they must pick two books, read them over the summer and be prepared to discuss and answer questions when school starts in August.
I had already read 2 of the 12 books, and in the last week I have 2 more books on the list. Why?..... I want to be the smartest person in the room.... and that means putting in the work. That high school teacher may have been a dick.....(that was one of the four letter words I used with him) but he got his point across, and it impacted the rest of my life.
Thinking back to that high school dick-teacher got me to thinking about words and how people speak. So let me ask you a question, if you were going to describe your life how would you say it..... Go ahead, pretend to tell someone about yourself.
I have noticed this, some folks say, ".....I live in town ABC" and other folks say, "......I stay in town ABC." how do you say it? I have noticed people in Urban areas "stay" some place and country/subdivision people "live" some place.
Country folks also say Black.....and not Urban.
When I got my internet service installed I said, ".....At&t turned on our internet service" and some folks say, "......we got our internet cut on today." This one really confuses me, I could see how how your service could get cut off,..... but I fail to understand something being "cut-on." How would you say it?
We have all heard the argument about refreshments, soda, pop, Coke, soda-pop.... what do you say? I say soda......
That teacher was a dick.....but he was right, the words you use can make you sound like an idiot. I still have my dictionary from college, (see picture) I have learned a few more words in the last few decades.....and I am pretty sure I know all of the four letter words, mainly because my beautiful wife has called me every single one......
