Hello native English speakers, you lucky bastards! :)
Although my native languages are Russian and Ukrainian, everyday I try to speak and understand English language as well as I can. Seriously! Cross my heart and hope to die!
Of course, I'm really far away from being any kind of native speaker myself, but I'm trying hard to be coherent when I speak/write and to be literate enough to understand everything that is thrown my way languagewise.
Yet, from time to time, I still get baffled by things that I discover in my everyday reading and listening experiences. And then comes mild depression and a self pitying drinking relapse of several cups of cold, honeyed tea. But we're not going to talk about that, ok? It's not an anonymous teaheads circle of support after all.
So here is the deal.
Every time I read, or listen to different kinds of books, I stumble upon new words. Tons of them. Ok, maybe not that much but still. For example, after reading 12-13 books on my Kindle, I have something around 1024 new words collected in my vocabulary builder. And by "new" I really mean "NEW". Something never encountered and never used before. I'm not a nervous person but somewhere deep in my heart it slowly sets me on edge.
So guys, and girls of course, please put me at ease, or make me even more anxious, and tell me this. Can you really, offhandedly, in a casual manner, give definitions to, and use in a conversation the words I'm planning to provide in the end of this sprawling text?
1. immaculate
2. affluence
3. turpitude
4. superfluous
5. anoint
6. perspicacity
7. timorous
8. faggot (original meaning not the contemporary one)
9. bailey
10. avarice
11. vacuous
12. repudiation
13. jejune
P.S. Those are all words I picked up in genuine unadopted English books by popular authors of, mostly, science fiction.
P.P.S. I guess that if every native speaker answers something like: "All those words are such a piece of cake!" I'll feel embarrassed and it's going to be another round of tea drinking. But hey, it's a good stimulus to work harder, while still feeling naive and ignorant (sighs heavily).
Yes, that's my question.
Why when you write simple and ridiculously fresh and inspiring "Hi people, I'm new here. Lets engage in jolly co-operation!", or something along those lines, you will get 100500 corrections, and 10 comments for good measure?
But if for some reason you write deep, long post about something intrinsically touching, this post automatically plunged into a void of ignorance. No comments, no corrections, nope! Not today, not ever.
What's happening with you people? This is not the place to be ignorant and/or indifferent, you know.
