The day before the Vance/Walz vice presidential debate, I was having lunch with a gentleman with an old-world education, certainly of the highest levels, but just Brooklyn public schools in the old days. He is not a credentialed intellectual in any official sense but it was fascinating to hear him speak about almost anything, even when we disagreed.
He mentioned in passing that he can hardly have a conversation with anyone under 40 these days. This is not because they are stupid or inexperienced. It is because they do not speak properly. They cannot seem to form sentences coherently. They are not adept at normal communication. The language they speak is not anything like standard English and neither is it some charming slang.
The new language is something else, born of purely oral transmission and heavily informed by influencer culture and podcasting. Buzzwords are thrown around everywhere as a replacement for actual language. The vocabulary is small, including the incessant use of “literally,” “so,” “annoying,” and “actually.”
There are repeated words that grate on one’s nerves: “go” instead of said or did, “you know” and “know what I’m saying?” as a random filler, ending most sentences with “right?” plus the worst offender: the incessant deployment of the word “like,” often every 4 or 5 words.
This prattle is embedded in a lyrical formulation that includes three crucial elements: nasal sonorities, raising intonation, followed by an ending vocal fry. Every bit of combination conveys an attitude of “nothing matters,” “I don’t care,” and “to make sure you don’t criticize me, I’m making sure that my words mean as little as possible.”
Yes, I’ve noticed all this, and it is getting worse. English is being replaced by something else entirely. Sitting on a train a few weeks ago, I had people in front, behind, and to the side who were all deploying this strange language. They spoke incessantly the entire trip, and said nothing at all of any meaning.
I simply cannot understand why this is happening. It strikes me as highly dangerous for a culture to lose its language and have it replaced by a series of pidgin utterances that are vague, strange, and largely without content.
What proved so striking about JD Vance’s performance in the debate was the full rejection of this entire way of speaking. Even apart from his content, logic, and command of facts was the erudition itself. That’s what commanded the evening. It caused his points to soar above his opponent and also the hectoring moderators who were reading from scripts.
I hope millions of young people listened in but they should recognize something here. He won the evening not only because of the points he had to make. He won because of the clear way that he made them. Even now, and probably especially now, erudition inspires trust and credibility.
Even as the debate opened, Vance’s opponent punctuated his stream of filler with various sounds of uhhh, which already prepared the listener to disregard the rest.
As Vance took his turn, we got clear English with no filler words or verbal tics at all. His elocution and vocabulary were such a relief! It served as a reminder of they way Americans used to speak before the digital age.
Most times, it is not obvious what distinguishes a compelling answer from one that is not. We tend to think it is about facts or charm or some attitude of joy. It is not. All those evaporate when countered with a clean and meaningful presentation of ideas, with sentences that start and stop with an intuitive cadence and no superfluous extras thrown in to distract.
Here is a secret you will never learn in school and no one will tell you: this kind of erudition is vital and essential to success in absolutely everything. It does not matter your profession or area of specialization. Those who can speak clearly and without fluff will be more successful than those who cannot.
It’s not obvious that the under 40 set that speaks the language we might call “influencer” understands that the habitual gibberish that has replaced English is professionally disastrous for them. Absolutely no one really wants to hear it. It’s awful and once you really take note of the mechanics of this language, the words themselves become sources of grave irritation.
Maybe this is why noise-canceling earbuds have become so popular!
Even now, nothing replaces coherent and cohesive language and vibrant and confident elocution.
At some point in the past, I had somehow picked up the “like” virus. When I realized it was happening, I simply worked on deleting it from my conversations. When I said it, I would give myself a mental pinch. It worked. By day’s end, it was gone. Even now, I do have to concentrate a bit to keep it out of conversation. When you are speaking with someone who deploys it constantly, it can creep into your own language when you do not realize it.
The same strategy can be used for the other problematic tics that festoon contemporary language. Carving them away is like making a sculpture: leave only what matters and then you are in a better position to evaluate the quality of what you are saying. I personally still have a problem with saying “you know” too often, a habit I picked up from a British friend many years ago. It’s a constant struggle to purge it, and when I fail to be conscious of the problem it comes back.
Beyond culling the gibberish, what else can you do?
First, before you speak in answer to any question, simply take a second or two to think about your first word. Make it matter. If you do this, you can stop with the habit of always saying “well” and “so” in front of every sentence (in fact, Vance himself could work on this). Pausing briefly also leaves a bit of space in the audible environment that directs more attention to what you are about to say.
Second, read more. And here I do not mean captions on TikTok videos. I mean actual books. Some of my favorite stylists in American English are H.L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Garet Garrett, and Albert Jay Nock. You don’t need to be super fussy about this, the Harry Potter books are fantastic for young people and adults too. And try to read them out loud so that you hear new words and expand your vocabulary.
Third, try some exercises. Go to the park or the store or just take a walk, come home, and stand in front of the mirror and describe what you did, what you found, and offer an opinion. Consider videotaping yourself while you are speaking with a conscious effort toward erudition. Watch it back and critique it again.
If you do these three things, you will discover that you can upgrade your language skills in a matter of days. Constant practice will give you a huge advantage over all your peers. Clear speaking is compelling in all times but especially now because it is so rare.
Laura Ingraham said of Vance’s performance that it was the finest she had seen of any political candidate in the 18 years she had covered politics. There are many reasons but the least understood and the most important one is that he speaks plainly, cleanly, coherently, and cohesively. As should we all.
