Shimer Speak

One of the things my immediate family keeps telling me since I’ve come back from Shimer for the summer is that I talk differently. This originally puzzled me because I don’t think my speaking has changed. There certainly haven't been any huge alterations. I haven't suddenly started speaking in iambic pentameter and I haven't eliminated the letter 'f' or to be verbs entirely from my speech. 

However despite my protests that not that much has changed my family members continue to comment on this change, and they universally blame Shimer for my new style of speaking. The validity of their claims aside, this isn't the first time I have thought about “Shimer Speak” as an idea and part of our community. People do talk differently here (though we listen differently as well, and the combination can trip people up). There are some words and phrases that have a special role in the Shimer community. I think they're probably widely used at most liberal arts colleges, words like; dichotomy, postmodern/pomo, construction, perception, informed by, subjectivity, the list could go on and on. As words they aren't really that uncommon or shocking and as I said I think they’re fairly standard for a liberal arts type college student. 

I think the words we use don't really matter. I noticed this because these critiques of my speaking also take place in conversations where these words don't really show up. There is a Shimer style of talking that I maintain even when I've abandoned this specialized vocabulary to talk about topics that don't lend themselves to Shimer jargon (like potato salad, which I could talk about Shimer Style, but I don't). So to get to the point really quickly, we tend to use a lot of words to say things you might be able to get across with fewer terms. 

The key word in that last sentence was 'might'. The good thing about a lot of terms is that they provide context for your words. If you're like me then you tend to read the many definitions and connotations of a word whenever you see it on a page, or hear it from someone's mouth. Other words are nice because they help me narrow down which of the many definition/connotation combinations a person intends. So you might be able to get your point across if you took all the ‘extra’ words out, but you also might fail and confuse people and spend the next twenty minutes revising your original statement.  

Like most things at Shimer this kind of “Shimer Speak” isn't universal within the community; it is simply one of many styles that I happened to notice. I'm more familiar with this style than some of the others, because I tend to use it more. So to those of you who have one,  what is your favorite kind of Shimer Speak?

Comments

[Eli]

My family said the same thing when I got home actually. They insisted that not only did I use different language but my diction and pacing had also changed. I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. Thankfully now that I've left there again no one notices.

[Katy Martin-Seaver]

It is nice to know this is happening to other people too! I'm curious to know how people are interpreting your tone because I've been getting some interesting suggestions. Apparently my new style of speaking seems to make people think I believe them to be stupid. Possibly a great dependence upon exact language suggests that you don't trust a person's intelligence? I can see it being taken that way though I tend to take the opposite view.

[Meg]

Unfortunately I've gotten the kind of reaction from some friends along the lines of: "Hey. No big words." (I think I had used "masochistic" at a certain point.) I think what changes is not only the words you use but the way you think about things. When you ask someone, "Well, why do you think that?" or "What makes you say that?" the way that we usually do at Shimer in conversation, you get curious looks or responses like, "Well, because." We examine our beliefs and our statements differently than most people do. I absolutely do not think this corresponds to intelligence. (Although you're right, I think it may be taken this way.) Rather, it shows a certain way of thinking that we're accustomed to that most other people are not. Anyone can examine their statements. Many people choose not to, or don't know to.

[Katy Martin-Seaver]

Shimer is such a tight knit community it is always useful to see how things get treated in different settings.
I think the key with regard to intelligence is that I wasn't suggesting that there is a correspondence between critical thinking and say raw brain power. Instead I was trying to comment on the cultural tendency to regard wordy speaking as a form of talking down to someone. I think it is an interesting trend. The fact is, as you said, we do ask questions here, we ask a lot of questions and usually people are only asked questions when they are being set up to prove themselves wrong. Or at least in my experience with traditional education. No one ever asks you to explain a correct idea, it is just correct. That kind of thing doesn't work here but realizing that things operate like that in a lot of the world many of use grew up in clears up why we have trouble deciding if Socrates (or that person in our class who always badgers us with questions) is really honestly curious, or just a jerk. Just another on going adjustment I think.
Though I've mostly been able to make up my mind about my classmates, the jury is still out on Socrates.