“Let us endeavor to return to our abode on the morrow and partake in the consumption of sustenance.”
Translation
“Let’s go home tomorrow and eat.”
I had to ask ChatGPT to rewrite the above sentence for me.
With the proliferation of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence, more and more I am observing my friends the Luopeans making very complicated sentences. In every such sentence, there are 10 words that need to be looked up in the dictionary in order to get the message.
Back in the day, when I was learning stylistics, the professor repeated daily to us, at the beginning of every class…
“The average English speaker, knows 5,000 words or less. And this statistic, includes the native English speakers.”
Therefore, when you write, keep in mind that you are trying to communicate to someone who has a vocabulary of 5000 words or less. You are attempting to pass a message. You’re not trying to impress the audience by displaying how wide your vocabulary is.
Nowadays, we have lost sight of the intention to communicate. We started with Lumumba and Miguna. Recently I saw a Luo man’s eulogy which gave me a headache. More than a slight headache.
I am not going anywhere with this. Well, if you use one word which I don’t know, my curiosity will be piqued and I will look it up. But if you use 12 words that are beyond my comprehension in one sentence, my brain shuts down.
As most everyone’s does! That’s what the professor said to us.
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