This is kind of a lame blog topic, but I'm bored and trying to procrastinate for a while. I was thinking about learning vocab words and why we do it.
Vocab is important because it helps you improve your writing and reading skills, and can definitely help you out on tests (like the SAT). However, for me, I think it is kind of pointless for things other than testing. Whenever I hear or use a vocab word, I feel like a loser because it is a vocab word to me, and not a real word. I mean, I know that they are real words and they are important, but the fact that the first time I heard it was in a vocab book makes it very difficult for me to use it.
While I know vocab is a crucial part of English and we have to learn new words to really understand books and intelligent people, but it is so annoying to me to hear all these great words and never be able to use them because of the label "vocabulary word" that is permanently engraved in my mind. With that, I better go study for my vocab test so that I can get my A back in that class... It does make for a nice padding to your grade if you actually study the words, because in my class they are generally fairly easy.
I always thought those vocab tests were pointless, but I do like learning new words on my own.
Well, I think the idea behind testing us is to see our level of knowledge when it comes to Latin roots of words and such. At least, that's the theory. But some of these words are so weird; they can't be Latin. Like kowtow. May I inquire...WTF did that come from?!