Know It All

A friend of mine and I were chatting last night about something that has been happening in my life in the last week. We touched on a topic of conversation that really got me thinking about the attitudes and actions of some people. I would tend to generalize them as know-it-all's. They are the types that think they know everything about certain subjects and when you have an OPINION, they want to correct you on it. They also tend to use big words out of context and without really understanding the meaning of the words they are using. I pointed out an example to this friend when she used a word out of context. (This was done with humor and not mean-spirited.) The word was acronym and it was confused with abbreviation.

acronym: n. a word formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name
abbreviation: n. a shortened form of a word or phrase used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form

An acronym is an abbreviation, but not all abbreviations are acronyms. Pretty cool for English 101 today, right?

I've heard this type of stuff on the Apprentice. College educated kids (ok, they are really adults since they are over 18) use words like these and to those of us that are educated with a simple high school diploma, we wonder what all the fuss is about college.

Now my ex-wife has no college education, but she has taken various medical training classes. I don't think any of them qualify as college credits. She tends to do this same thing. (I will elaborate more on the issue she and I tried to discuss in another post.) When I went to send a reply to my ex's e-mail, I had spelling corrections to make and grammar corrections most every time. It was insane to think a woman over 30 would write like this and not even bother to use spell check.

Has our education really dropped this far since the federal government set up a Department of Education in 1974?

Not only were there spelling and grammar corrections to be made, but simple factual things were touted as opinions. The thrust of the conversation was the decision making of a 7 year old. My ex actually thinks that a 7 year old child, namely our daughter, can make a life changing decision. Everyone knows this is ridiculous, but she insists that our daughter understands the decision she is making. Of course, this woman over 30 then started using insults and veering off topic as the e-mails progressed.

Know-it-alls tend to do this. They start out with it in their head that they are going to maturely carry on a conversation with you, but they forget that part of the conversation is listening. They believe that they have all the answers and that you are just simply wrong if you don't agree with them. The conversation starts off simply enough but then takes a turn for the worst when they can't proceed to listen, but instead talk over you as if they already know what you think and that you are wrong. The conversation will then veer off topic and then turn into insults and name calling, if it continues beyond someone just walking off or tuning them out and nodding.

I don't claim to know everything about words and how they are used. I'm also one who uses improper grammar. I at least try to choose my words carefully in all situations. Words mean things. I also try to make sure I'm listening. Listening can be very difficult, but we have to make it a point. I'm talking from experience. I started out as one of these know-it-all types and sometimes still regress into the same pattern of behavior. Now I try to listen first before speaking. It's tough, but I have a better time talking to people.

Granted, I've always said that I don't know it all, but what I don't know I can find out.