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there we are: register :) Inappropriate and unusual beginning , isn't it ?
We all know that there’s a difference between how we talk with our friends, our parents, our boss at work, to the waiter, … and even worse, we have to learn those different varieties of speaking for every language, not only for our mother tongue. Why? Because knowing a language means to use the right register in every situation. Wait, what? Register? What is it? Definition: A variety of a language or a level of usage, as determined by degree of formality and choice of vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax, according to the communicative purpose, social context, and standing of the user. As mentioned before, according to different situations and people we talk to, we change our choice of words, our voice and the loudness we speak in. Where for speeches, in school, at university the written, formal language is used most of the time, between friends and family colloquial language is common. Imagine talking to your teachers as you do with your friends or the other way round, wouldn’t that be weird and just strange? Think about that and you’ll see how important register really is. You just can’t talk to your boss as if he was your best friend.
there we are: register :) Inappropriate and unusual beginning , isn't it ?
We all know that there’s a difference between how we talk with our friends, our parents, our boss at work, to the waiter, … and even worse, we have to learn those different varieties of speaking for every language, not only for our mother tongue. Why? Because knowing a language means to use the right register in every situation. Wait, what? Register? What is it? Definition: A variety of a language or a level of usage, as determined by degree of formality and choice of vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax, according to the communicative purpose, social context, and standing of the user. As mentioned before, according to different situations and people we talk to, we change our choice of words, our voice and the loudness we speak in. Where for speeches, in school, at university the written, formal language is used most of the time, between friends and family colloquial language is common. Imagine talking to your teachers as you do with your friends or the other way round, wouldn’t that be weird and just strange? Think about that and you’ll see how important register really is. You just can’t talk to your boss as if he was your best friend.
Surveys show, that it
doesn’t really matter what we say but HOW we say it. Something interesting I’ve
read few times as I’ve worked on rhetoric a lot: there’s been a guy on a
seminary with the best known doctors worldwide. He decided to speak about heart
surgeries, without ever having studied medicine. All he did was research and
preparing a speech. All doctors where impressed and no one realized that he
wasn’t an expert at all. Now you surely ask yourself “But how is this possible?”
Well, he chose the right register (some terms only used in medicine, the right
serious voice,…) ! There is so much you can do with language, dare to try it
and see what happens.
But all this makes it hard
to really learn a language. I think, the best way to get to know foreign
languages is to stay in the country where it is spoken for a certain time. If
you are forced to use it you improve yourself, and hearing it all day enlarges
your vocabulary. Of course it takes time, but at the end you’ll be glad to know
a language with all its difficulties, and you’ll see connections as well as differences
between different languages and cultures. And this might be useful for language studies.
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