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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / August 2008Is Lifequakes a real word? Can I use on the TOEFL?
Earthquakes remain a concern for people living in many places, including my home in Southern California. This awareness, and fear of sudden shaking and buildings falling, enters into many conversations. I recently read a wonderful term and vocabulary word: lifequake. What does it mean? An event that suddenly changes your life – a car accident, being laid off, terrible illness, or getting divorced – in the same dramatic way that an earthquake might destroy a building. Now I have a new way to ask friends to share more about awkward situations. • How did you deal with that lifequake? • What lifequakes have you survived? • How will you manage that lifequake? Is lifequake a real word? Can educated English speakers use it? Absolutely. New words and slang terms enter English dictionaries all the time, partly because our world continues to change and evolve. Lifequake clearly describes a common experience. It's pithy and practical. While I would might hesisitate about using the term on a TOEFL or TOEIC test, I plan to incorporate into my daily vocabulary with family, friends, and students. A fellow ESL teacher and longtime California resident believes that “lifequake” was a widely used term in the 1970s among “young, hip people.” Perhaps. Whether old hipster slang or a new Californian term, lifequake conveys an understanding that sometimes life can shock and hurt. Lifequake is a fast way to communicate a harsh reality. Lifequakes happen. Don't you agree? Ask more. Know more. Share more. Create Compelling Conversations. Visit www.CompellingConversations.com On Jul 29, 9:02 am, "howdo...@gmail.com" <howdo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Earthquakes remain a concern for people living in many places, > including my home in Southern California. This awareness, and fear of [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > Create Compelling Conversations. > Visitwww.CompellingConversations.com Eric, I realize you've received different responses in different groups. However, "lifequake" is not a real word. I would definitely advise students not to use the word "lifequake" on the TOEFL, for a variety of reasons. The TOEFL is corrected by people all over the place. I would also not use "squoze" on the test, even though it is also a regional California term for the past simple form of "squeeze." I don't know where else you've lived in the world, but I think it's safe to say that the majority of people worldwide have never experienced a significant earthquake. The kind of knowledge required to make a mental leap from "life-changing experience" to "quake" is something only someone who has been exposed to the mind-altering reality of the Ur-Erde actually moving under one's feet would have. So while it certainly seems to be an excellent word to vividly explain what it feels like to undergo a life-changing experience, it doesn't mean all that much to most people who will correct this test. The vast majority of English native speakers do not live in earthquake zones, and the same is true for English language teachers. I've found that when reaching for higher scaled scores on the new TOEFL iBT, it pays to be adventurous when it comes to using a few select grammatical forms, but it definitely doesn't pay to be adventurous when it comes to using newly-coined vocabulary. A student who can use "lifequake" in a sentence and cannot use the word "conversely" in another sentence is sure to score lower than one who can make the grade the other way around. -- Jim > On Jul 29, 9:02 am, "howdo...@gmail.com" <howdo...@gmail.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 67 lines] > > -- Jim Jim - Agreed. As you note, "lifequake" is not a common word and is a poor choice for TOEFL test. Command of more traditional academic words and effective transitions if more important on TOEFL tests than using hip slang terms. I've lived in several countries, and traveled to over 35 countries. Earthquakes, unfortunately, plague a large percentage of the earth. I'm not sure how many people will have difficulty making the mental jump from "earthquake" to "lifequake", but the value of the word was shown this week in Los Angeles. We had a very publicized, far too publicized 5.4 earthquake that led to zero deaths, very few injuries, and almost no property damage despite an hour of live CNN coverage. This jolt was an earthquake, not a lifequake! I've used that line, generating many smiles, nods, and laughs during the last 50 hours. Lifequake is a very practical term in earthquake zones. Eric On Jul 31, 3:21 pm, "howdo...@gmail.com" <howdo...@gmail.com> wrote: <SNIP> > I've lived in several countries, and traveled to over 35 countries. > Earthquakes, unfortunately, plague a large percentage of the earth. > I'm not sure how many people will have difficulty making the mental > jump from "earthquake" to "lifequake", but the value of the word was > shown this week in Los Angeles. Eric, You've missed my point, but I doubt you're big on phenomenology, and who is, really? Once again, few English native speakers live in active earthquake zones, and almost none have experienced the peculiar reality of a major earthquake. The West Coast of the United States is the only heavily-populated English-speaking area located in an earthquake zone. People in LA might understand, but make that joke in London or New York and others really wouldn't, although I'm certain many would obligatorily smile at your attempt at wordplay. This is a map of world earthquake zones: http://www.scarborough.k12.me.us/wis/teachers/dtewhey/webquest/nature/earthquakes.htm Living through a major earthquake tends to destroy certain unconscious assumptions in your head, chief among them being that the "ground" is immovable and that feeling it firm below your feet is a sensation that will never change. Experiencing the uncompromising reality that the ground is not exactly what you take it to be is what's so frightening about an earthquake for many people, not, in most cases in the developed world, its tangible effects on life and property. That's exactly why you had an hour of live coverage on CNN for a 5.4 and a few busted windows. In Toyko or Athens, you'd get a bored epicenter announcement in ten minutes, and then nothing. The realities of living in those zones: you are unusually sensitive to vibrations, you spend plenty of time watching hanging lighting fixtures, you worry about the placement of natural gas lines in your area, you have an earthquake kit near the door in your home, and every time you feel even a small quake you wonder where the epicenter was...most English-language native speakers have no idea what this is like, or what it does to your head over the course of a lifetime. |
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