Wanna buy a box?

When you have a product, you do your best to sell it. You target a buyer and decide on your approach. This is exactly what is done in the making of commercials and in the ads you see in magazines. The pictures, the language, and the tone used to sell the products are all carefully analyzed and selected.

Believe it or not, Girl Scouts do this when selling cookies. Whether it's at a booth or in school or even over the phone, Girl Scouts are trained to sell. We all have to take a 'cookie training' class, and we learn how to sell. Younger girls learn through role playing sales, and older girls review good sales tactics. We recognize that the words we use and the way we phrase or question can help attract or deter buyers.

For example, we usually avoid saying "Wanna buy a box?" at cookie booths. If people aren't looking at you, they don't know what your selling. If you say it in a dejected tone that says 'I'm so very cold , and I don't want to be here,' then sales will not be great.

However, if you phrase the question as, 'would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies?' then people tend to listen. This subtle change in language is enough to make the difference between a sale and someone walking away.

This is why advertisers spend so much time on a 7 second commercial. You have to pick the correct word, while being weary of the connotations associated with that word, as well as ensure you are forming phrases that inspire the image of the product you wish to sell.

When you have a product, you want to sell it. In order to sell, you must ensure you use the proper language when advertising that product.

Substance Vs. Popularity

As much as I love reading, there are some books that you just don't want to force yourself through. There's always that kid in English class who asks, "Why do we have to read this? What's the point?" At the end of that long collection of words, there is a point. I promise. We aren't reading "Twilight" in class for a reason. We don't discuss Edward, Jacob, and Bella's love triangle after vocabulary because it simply isn't important. True, "Twilight" is a very popular franchise, but that doesn't make it relevant or good reading material. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's good.

Instead, we read books of relevance and that are actually well written. Yes, "The Odyssey" looks daunting at first, but it is a good book. Books are extremely influential, and they can reflect a lot about the culture or ideas behind them. For example, there is a reason the Bible is one of the top-selling books in the nation. It is certainly not as hip as Twilight, but it is considered relevant for a reason. It represents an entire movement of religion.Whether you agree with the ideas behind the cover or not, you now what the Bible is.

So although we may groan and complain when we get a required reading list, there is a purpose behind those pages that seem to be forced on us. For the sake of knowledge and understanding what a good book is, we read. We suffer through to the end, and are rewarded with reading something of with substance, unlike "Twilight".

It isn't nice to have the bad habit of floccinaucinihilipilification.

"If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur."

-Doug Larson.

 

The English language makes no sense. Today, we have over a million words, and our language continues to grow. We create this language out of 26 letters of the alphabet; these handful of letters that we learn in kindergarden are used to make up words such as floccinaucinihilipilification. Yes, that is a real word. Google it if you don't believe me. We have this incredibly long word made up of 28 letters to describe the simple act of belittling other's achivements and estimating things as worthless. What about the fear of long words? Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. You know there is a phsychologist somewhere getting a kick out of that. Or what about a galimaufrey? A tall awkward fellow, a hog's snout, or and individual who owns far too many baubles for his own good, a galimaufrey is not a word to forget. Do you know any of these words? I certaintly have trouble pronouncing them, let alone defining them!

 

The thing that strikes me is the thought that Shakespeare's Old English only had about 40,000 words. He wrote timeless classics that high school students suffer through using a fraction of the words we have today. What would he have done with words such as mignardise (gentleness) or Chiengora (yarn weaved from dog hair) at his disposal? Would his works be even better and more defined if he had more words at his disposal? Or would "Hamlet" have suffered if Shakespeare had terms such as spamalytics (computer scientists use this term to investigate spam emails)?

 

Shakespeare's greatness was in the language he used. He created words when his language wasn't enough. If he'd had all of these words, his true genius would not have been challenged. In fact, his greatest works might have even suffered from a broader spectrum of language. Less is more; this phrase is said for a reason. Although we work with 26 letters, we create combinations that can make your head spin; and that's before you throw in words from other languages.

Shakespeare's genius is in the simplicity of the language he worked with. Had he been dealing with the million or so words we have today, I doubt he would have had the chance to shine and manipulate language the way he did. Had Shakespeare's language been as 'developed' as our langauge, we might have nothing to suffer through in English class.