The ABCs of Shawnigan: A is for "Amazing! isn't so amazing"

Three times. That’s how many times the Grade 11 student said “Amazing!” as she recounted her weekend events: The sleep-in was Amazing! Brunch was Amazing! And her afternoon swim in the lake was, you guessed it, Amazing! While I applaud her enthusiasm and positivity, I lament that our vocabularies, like tasteless soups, are too watered down, drowning out little bursts of flavour that make the experience more rewarding. Really, what does Amazing! even mean?

 

The problem with using the same word — regardless of what it is— to describe three entirely different experiences is to suggest that the three experiences are the same. By default, they have been reduced to being one thing: Amazing! And yet in truth, sleeping in, brunching, and swimming could not be more different. I imagine the sleep-in to be luxurious, the brunch to be delicious, and the swim to be invigorating. These words help to differentiate the experiences instead of homogenizing them.  

 

I take comfort in knowing that our Shawnigan teachers are doing their share of heavy lifting in the noble pursuit of vocabulary-building. Recently, I observed a class where the teacher unpacked an assigned reading by first addressing any unfamiliar words: prescient, surly, sullen, and ubiquitous — all foreign to the majority of the students. While perhaps this exercise piqued my interest more than theirs, I was heartened to hear a boy mutter while packing his bag at the end of class, “All this homework is contributing to my sullen mood.” Nice. In a different class on a different day, I geeked out when the teacher showed me personalized vocabulary lists created by each student in an effort to expand individual word banks. Weekly, these students were to incorporate these words into their writing assignments, thereby building their lexicon muscles.  

 

So why does a robust vocabulary matter, the Grade 11 amazed brunching swimmer might ask? Good question. Let’s answer this question by asking another: What comes first, the word or the idea? Responding to this could spiral into a chicken-or-egg debate, but most scholars would argue that the word comes first. Simply put, language shapes thought. Better words, better ideas.

 

One proponent of this thinking is George Orwell, who believes that the word is the seed from which the idea grows; hence, by dumbing down the vocabulary, citizens will become cognitively dull. In his classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell shows us that the government of Oceania mandates a watered-down-soup-of-a vocabulary called Newspeak as an intentional way to “control the population and limit their thinking.” It follows, therefore, that an increased vocabulary will lead to expanded thinking, which in turn will fuel one’s power, and ultimately lead to freedom.

 

Okay, it might be a bit of a leap to suggest that a bigger vocabulary is a catalyst to freedom, but at the very least, using better words will showcase you as being a more interesting person. Better still, the deliberate practice will stimulate the neurotransmitters between the synapses in your brain. (That’s a good thing.) So, if the brunch wasn’t delicious, perhaps it was a hedonistic gorge-fest, or a savoury delight, or a cornucopia of carbs. Dub it ANYTHING but Amazing! Let’s reserve that word for the hymn about grace, and the reality TV adventure race.