Tag Archives: English

The Average Vocabulary of a Texter

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I know that I don’t have the largest vocabulary in the world, but I would like to think I have a reasonable grasp on English vocabulary. I’m sure this is helped by the hour or two I spend reading every day and the fact that I often read classics.

However, this apparently is not the norm of the American people, or at least the people that use the same model of phone I use. Only occasionally do I find a word that Blogger doesn’t know, and even less common do I find a word that Microsoft Word spell check doesn’t know (it especially happens when writing seminary papers…clearly Word has never been to seminary), but I find words that my phone doesn’t know (specifically the T9 predictive text function) on almost a daily basis.

Words that I’ve recently discovered were not in my phone’s vocabulary:

Bawl
Yeppers (I said I had an extensive vocabulary, haha)
Roomie (Blogger doesn’t recognize this nor “yeppers,” sigh)
Blog (I know!)

Another question about the T9 function: it’s supposed to give me the words in the order of most frequent use, right? How come when I go to type “jen” (a word I have to use pretty often) does it give me “ken” and “leo” before “jen?” Aren’t there like 40 bazillion Jens out there, many more than Kens or Leos? I mean really, I only “know” one Leo, and that’s only if you can count famous people.

What words have you been surprised is not in your phone/blogger/word processor?

My Teenagers Will Never…

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When I have teenaged children, I’m going to teach them how to use proper spelling and grammar in online communication, and if they don’t, they’re going to have to do work to prove to me they know it (e.g. write the usages of your and you’re 20x each). I don’t care if they use texting shorthand or whatever, but if they’re writing a real word IT WILL BE SPELLED CORRECTLY.

That is all.

ETA: Oh, wow.  Yes, I did have a weird typing error in this post that is now fixed, the kind where I think faster than I type.  I wrote it in a hurry; that’s what I get.  Oh, the irony…

If Only I Grew Up Speaking Spanish

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I’m a good speller. I read a lot, so I almost always know when a word looks right. However, there are a few words that still cause me problems! Ironically, blogger’s spell check isn’t working on this post!

Do you struggle with any of these?

1. License – this one always gets me. I want to spell it “lisense” or “licencse.” All of them look wrong, so how do you remember which one is right?

2. Glimpse – there should be a limit on how many consonants are in a row.

3. Vegetable – if I ever have to write this word, I simply write “veggies.”

4. Judgment – I didn’t realize there was no “e” in the middle for the longest time.

5. Casserole – I didn’t realize there WAS an “e” in the middle for the longest time. I have several misspelled recipe cards to prove it.

6. Flyer – I always forget if it is “flyer” or “flier” and have to double check before I save a file at work. I really don’t want to misspell it and have to forward the document to my boss or someone else!

7. Dissension – this one blew me away. I was memorizing 1 Timothy 2 for class, and I had this word spelled correctly. I thought it was misspelled, however, and had to double check. I was sure that it was “dissention.”

8. Separate – why does this have two a’s?

9. Conscience – this word is just a mess. I have to consciously think about how to spell it every time.

10. Misspell – how can the word “misspell” be so easy to misspell?

What words do you have trouble with?

For Illegal Immigration?

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On my near-hour commutes to and from the office, I like to listen to talk radio. I don’t feel compelled to agree with the talk show hosts (usually locals Brad and Britt in the morning and Sean Hannity in the evenings), but enjoy hearing opinions that may or may not mesh with my own. The latest hot topic has been immigration. This is a topic that I struggle to come to an actual opinion on, because there are two competing desires within me.

The problem I have with the majority of anti-immigration advocates is that there are often strong nationalist, xenophobic, and ethnocentric underpinnings to this stance. Yes, there are legitimate concerns with national security and law enforcement that come in to play, but all too often I hear people complaining about the increasing cultural diversity as if America has always been static and English is the only language that should be spoken in a civilized country.

As a Christian, I worship a God that is calling all peoples to Himself. America is not the new Israel, a nation chosen by God in some special way. Yes, God has blessed America, and I am incredibly thankful to have been born here. However, my citizenship is ultimately in heaven and that is where my true allegiance lies. This influences how I view American foreign policy.

I’m excited to live in a place where the nations are coming to us. The American church has the blessing of being able to reach out to individuals who come from places where they would never have heard the Gospel. I never want to be a part of a local church that does not welcome “outsiders” whether openly or by simply by ignoring them.

I generally agree with the ideas I’ve heard about the latest immigration bill, but I’m not willing to support it outright without knowing the details. While I don’t like the fact that there is a huge number of immigrants who have entered our country by breaking the laws, I’m not going to push them out. They are no more or less important than anyone else.

The issue of immigration is where my love of rule-following and my love of all people come at odds with each other, but I’m okay with that. I know which one will come out on top.