Connect The Dots 05

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. This is brother, Mohammed and we're continuing on our journey of spoken word slam poetry in Islam. Oh, yeah, gotcha right here on connect the dots. And I'm going to share some stats with you now. Okay, they're gonna pop up on the screen right now, the first thing you should know, when it comes to vocabulary, because we're still talking about writing in words, is that the proficient native English speaker will know about 40,000 words. Okay, so an average proficient English speaking person will know about 40,000 words in the English language. Older people, obviously know more words than

younger people. And the situation obviously is still much different from people that are second language speakers. So meaning that English is not their first language, or perhaps they know more than one language. Now, why is this important is because you, as a writer, as a poet, are limited by the words that you know. So you want to consistently be in a process of expanding increasing your vocabulary by doing a lot of things I'll talk about a little bit later. But I'll tell you one of the tricks that I've picked up along the way, one of your best friends as a writer is going to be at the source. Now, if you don't know what the source is, if you think if the source is some dinosaur that

went extinct, you have bigger problems. But if you actually know how to use the source efficiently, then you are in a lot of luck. Because if the source will actually take you from A to Z, it will help you explain yourself in ways that you didn't even know where possible, if you're able to actually put together words in a more intricate understanding. So the sources are great. Another tool that I use, and this is not, I'm leaving you on a little like cheat right now, because this is, you know, very taboo among some people, but I don't really care is a rhyme dictionary. I'll talk a little bit about rhyming later on and why rhyming is so great. But you know, using a rhyming

dictionary can be one of your best friends. There's a rhyming dictionary online called rhyme zone that I use, I'm like, you know, one of their top users, probably, I've been using it for the last, I don't know, eight or nine years, it's a great resource, the source is a great resource. Well, a dictionary can be a great resource as well. If you want to, you know, find out the specific meaning of this word and how it can be used in a context. I've actually included in the description box below an online vocabulary test that you can take, it can teach you very quickly, inshallah, how many words you actually know obviously, it's not 100% precise. But it's a general tool that you can

use in sha Allah, that can tell you what you're working with. Because as a wordsmith, as a poet, as a lyricist, you need to know what you're packing. So take the test in shallow and find out what it is you're working with. But at the same time, it doesn't matter where you are, you can still improve your vocabulary, there are a lot of things you can do to improve your vocabulary. And why this is important, again, is because you need to be able to express yourself according to the exact emotions you have inside. And you cannot do that if you're lacking the word choice that you need to articulate yourself correctly. So one of the things you can do to increase your vocabulary is, first

of all, read, read, read, read, yes, you got to read, and you have to read outside of your comfort level. So if you want to be able to speak to people using words that you're not familiar with, you have to first of all learn words that you're not familiar with. And that can only be done, if you're reading outside of your specific genre, comfort level, maybe all you read is comic books in the toilet, you know, I'm saying you're reading, I don't know, like columns or blogs online, and they're not challenging your vocabulary, you know, find things that can challenge you maybe pick up a book that is, you know, maybe using more classical English or pick up a novel or, or an article that

maybe is written by somebody in university or professor or someone who can actually use words that can help challenge your understanding of the of the meaning. And you can actually have to, you know, go back and research and find out what does this word mean. And actually, you'll find the most of your vocabulary, most of what you know, in the English language is now studies have shown this is that we have a larger passive vocabulary, then we do an active vocabulary, meaning that there are a whole heap of dormant words in the back of your brain words that you've heard used on TV, maybe you heard them in an article, or you read them online, and you kind of know what they mean, but you

don't feel comfortable using them. So the best way to increase your vocabulary is to just make your passive vocabulary, your active vocabulary. So taking those words out of the dormant place in the back of your mind, and placing them on the forefront of your tongue and using them in sentences in words and regular day conversations in Sharla. So that you can actually become or at least seem like you're more intelligent, you may not be But hey, just fake it till you make it. That's what I always say. Another great tool can like I said, be using a thesaurus and a dictionary to help keep yourself active. You know, maybe when you hear a word find out if there's another word that you can use

similar to it or if you hear a word that you've never you've never heard before, find out exactly what it means. Another thing that you can actually try is keeping a journal. And anytime you come across a word that you're not familiar with or not comfortable with, write it down, figure out what it means later on and figure out how

You can actually use it, you know, actively in your vocabulary moving forward. Another thing you can try to increase your vocabulary is use a learn a word a day game, there's a ton of these apps online that you know, just send a word to your email every single day or use pop up your phone and you see a word, it's a new word you haven't maybe heard before. And you can just have one of those every single day for 365 days, you could be increasing yourself in words, right? That's something you can try out. Another thing you can do is actually play different word games. There's a ton of different word games, online, things from Scrabble, to all types of things that allow you to maybe have to

play with the passive vocabulary in your mind to make them active at the same time, maybe teach you words that you didn't necessarily know before. So a lot of word games out there can be beneficial in Sharma if your intention is correct, and you've been using the right way. And lastly, another great way to increase your vocabulary is to engage in conversation with people who might seem like they're more intelligent than you or perhaps they have a larger vocabulary than you, you know, speaking with them, and having that, you know, exchange of thoughts and ideas will force you to perhaps use words that again, were dormant in the back of your mind, but now they're on the tip of your tongue because

you're engaged in a conversation with somebody who can challenge the words that you're using. Right? This is really you know, I love meeting people by the way that have a very extensive English vocabulary for me it's a mental exercise of communicating and conversing with people who I feel like are intelligent who are going to make me better and my word choice if you can find these people great. If you live in the hood and you're surrounded by idiots, then you're on your own right maybe you got some YouTube videos or something but for the most people you get a chance to inshallah find people who are smart or intelligent, who can hold a good conversation and use it as a test as a tool

to challenge yourself inshallah to become a better wordsmith. That's all from this video. Stay tuned for the next video where we might actually start start talking about writing poetry for ones right we're going to talk about inshallah, the actual process of writing in the next video. Stay tuned for watching. I said that money can lie he bought a catchment