Diction says a lot about a person, but it is one thing to be able to speak in an educated manner and to understand words like colloquial (which actually just means conversation) while it is something perhaps much more important to understand the colloquialisms themselves. We should never limit our language and a truly educated vocabulary must understand both the language of the textbooks and the everyday language of the streets. When I was a kid I was once asked if I wanted to “squab” and it took me a while to come up with the fact that I was being asked to fight (squabble), but the point is that I have never forgotten my misunderstanding which could have led to something rather unpleasant. Some might say that’s more about slang than colloquial language, but the point is that in order to relate to everyone around you even slang perhaps especially slang needs to be understood. There is something very special about being able to adapt to any conversation, not to dumb yourself down or pretend you know what’s being talked about when it’s really over your head, but to really be able to converse with anyone in a way that relates to them. We need to relate to each other and language is a major part of that. My three year old uses phrases like, “actually mom, I am already quite calm,” but she also might burst out with a, “true dat, dad” at a similarly appropriate and perhaps a bit sassy moment. It all comes down to a choice between the limitations we place around us by refusing to even try to understand that which is foreign or “beneath” us, and the rich rewards that come when we decide to dive in to the colloquial.