I was watching my sister-in-law compete at a horse show. I mentioned to my six year old niece that I was excited to watch her mom compete. She immediately responded by asking me what that meant. After helping her understand the word compete, I wondered why, as we become adults, we often become afraid to ask meanings of words we don’t know. Somewhere along the way we learn to feel dumb for asking for a definition during a conversation. It’s like we feel that it is expected we know the meaning of all words that everyone uses, and that if we ask for a definition, it means we aren’t as intelligent as another.
There is no shame, however, in asking what a word means. No one can know the meaning of every word. Some people are better than others at retaining the meanings of words. Just like some people are better than others at spelling. Learning new words, what they mean, and how to use them properly is one way to expand our minds. I’d like to get to a time where, instead of feeling silly for not knowing what a word means, even if it appears that everyone else knows (chances are, they don’t), we feel comfortable asking for a definition and people are appreciative of that because it means we care about expanding our minds and about the present conversation.
Asking questions of any sort shouldn’t make us feel like we aren’t as intelligent as others. Curiosity is a wonderful thing. There is so much we don’t know. Learning new things is exciting and gives us a greater ability to think with logic and to problem solve.
I hope my niece never stops asking questions about things she is unfamiliar with. I hope that she never feels uncomfortable being curious. And I hope that more adults start accepting curiosity and appreciate the ability in others to admit when they don’t know something but show they want to learn by simply asking.