"Talk Nerdy To Me" Chelsea Green

Communication is inevitably a part of our everyday life. It helps us to bridge gaps in understanding, and to become more informed about the world around us. Melissa Marshall did a wonderful job in exposing how certain individuals often falter communication due to use of jargon. She uses the clever play of words “talk nerdy to me” to emphasize people’s desire for understanding of things unfamiliar.

I can speak from experience on how the use of jargon in unnecessary situations has affected me and possibly others. We’ve all had at least one class, in high school or even here in college, with a self proclaimed “genius”. They go out of their way to prove people wrong, and use large words to make themselves seem more credible. So annoying. However, in their attempt to try to make themselves sound “smarter than thou”, there is no benefit to anyone. That person going back and forth with the teacher using specialized language isn’t helping the majority of the class who came there to learn. On another note we all may have had professors who begin to throw all of this fancy language at us and fail to explain the meaning of the words. What good is it that the professor knows the jargon if they aren’t breaking it down for their students? It’s no good. In fact, this behavior may push people away from wanting to learn because they are scared away by the jargon.

People now are so into proving and showing off their intelligence, but I believe intelligence goes way beyond the individual; intelligence is most valuable when you can share it with those around you. Making your argument understandable doesn’t mean dumbing it down either. You can “make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler” as Einstein would say. People shouldn’t go out of their way to make people feel inferior to them intellectually, instead they should bridge the gap in understanding; share the wealth, if you will so communication can flourish.