Whoa there ferryman!!!

If I had one super power, it probably would be... gosh, I don't know.
Would I fly? possess super sonic speed? the ability to breath under water? be invisible?
I think it would be to speak any language effortlessly and instantaneously. That would be amazing.
I have tried my tongue at a few different languages with varying degrees of success - But despite my lack of fluency, I do think it is possible to learn how to say hello in lots of different languages.

You can too, click here

But have you ever stopped to think about the word, hello?

Where does the word come from?
Well according to wikipedia, it was used in publications as early as 1833. These include an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee,^[1] good ole' Davy Crockett!!

Before that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it seems that hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo,^[3] which came from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imper[ative] of halôn, holôn to fetch, used esp[ecially] in hailing a ferryman."^[4] It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there').^[5]

So, once you master saying hello in
Swahili, which is jambo? or "hujambo?," which loosely translate as 'how are you?' are commonly used but you may also say Habari gani? (What is the news?)

or in Zulu, which is sawubona for one person, sanibonani for multiple people. Sawubona translates to  'we see you' and you should respond by saying "yebo"-meaning 'yes,'

you can start practicing how to say hello like only Lionel Richie can... but hopefully not as creepy as he is in the video... who knew?
Lionel Richie - Hello

Quiz yourself!

One more resource because it was so much fun for me.
Click here to get quizzed by dictionary.com flashcards
There are several decks, the link sends you to "the most common GRE words."
Have fun building your vocabulary!

Long words don't always make one's writing stronger

As you work on your first assignment I thought I might provide a resource instead of one single interesting word. Here is a list of 10 unusually long and interesting words according to Merriam-Webster. Click to visit the top 10. These all possess a fun story, which I enjoy.
Possessing a strong vocabulary is a useful and common tool in the writer's toolbox and will certainly come in handy while we work on our writing together, but according to Stephen King in On Writing, "Put your vocabulary in the top shelf of your toolbox, and don't make any conscious effort to improve it. One of the really bad things you can do for your writing is to dress up [your] vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed the this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed. Make yourself a solemn promise right now that you'll never use "emolument" when you mean "tip" and you'll never say John stopped long enough to perform an act of excretion when you mean John stopped long enough to take a... Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful. If you hesitate and cogitate, you will come up with another word -- of course you will, there's always another word -- but it probably won't be as good as your first one, or as close to what you really mean."
Have fun writing, and thank you for joining me, for participating. It is making my day.