My daily word quota

My daily word quota
15 August 2013

I fear it is most definitely true.  All the old adages are correct.  Or at least they are in my case.  Women talk more than men.

Well why wouldn’t we?

It’s as if I have a daily word quota, and I must ensure I use up the whole allotted, well…..lot.  Because heavens alive!  Just imagine if I didn’t?  Then the next day would surely mean a double dose of sorts?  Or a carry-over of the words I never consumed on the previous day.

In my humble opinion, and experience, women are far more verbal than men.  But I think we all know this.  And know it to be absolutely true.

If you simply open your eyes all around you, wherever you go, you’ll see that it is so.

We make conversation with most people that cross our daily paths.  Whether we know them or not.  There’s a wonderful saying in Afrikaans, namely, “’n geselsie aanknoop”.  And it illustrates beautifully and most eloquently, exactly what it means.  In essence it is knotting a little conversation together.  Usually about something insignificant.  Not all that important.  Not necessarily with someone you know really well.  It can be with a mere acquaintance.  Or even a stranger, standing next to you in the queue.

Us women, can do this with ease. 

Oh, you do get more verbal men too.  And in the same vein, women that are less so.  Still as a gender, women are more likely to indulge in “conversation knotting”.

On any given day, women say on average about 20 000 words.  Pretty impressive, if I say so myself.  And I would guestimate that I fall in the highest percentile of that statistic.  While all that the men can muster is a poorly and limp 7 000 words a day.  Pathetic!!!

In fact, I wonder if they say even that much?  My Grantie is a pretty talkative fellow.  When I give him the opportunity.  But I’m guessing he doesn’t consume his daily word dose.

Still, some days, I find myself stealing some of his 7 000 a day word budget.  What???  It’s not as if he uses all of them in any rate.

And whereas a woman who has not used her entire daily quota of 20 000 words, finds herself in the wonderful predicament of having more words at her disposal the following day, the opposite is true for men.

Their word counter gets reset back to zero, with no carry over or follow on, at the break of every new dawn.

I think that as a species, men tend to be more insular.  They internalise more.  Don’t express their emotions and feelings as well and as often.  Maybe they think it emasculates them, or makes them lesser men. 

But as for us girls? 

We’ve got the gift of the gab.  And get lots of enjoyment thereof.

And though it can be said, that I use a portion of my daily word quota on my much beloved blog (if the words are not said, and merely typed, I’m sure it doesn’t count!), I still indulge in the verbal equivalent.  I jabber on the phone to my mom a few times a day.  I chat to friends.  Other moms when I fetch my kids from school.  Along the sports fields, watching kids doing their thing.  Waiting at the doctor’s rooms.  Doing the grocery shopping.  I talk to my dishwasher (she’s now been dubbed, “Precious”), my domestic worker and I sing loudly in my car.  I talk to clients, neighbours, kids’ teachers, family, my kids, my Grantie, etc. etc. etc.  Then there’s e-mail chatting, sms’, Facebook, WhatsApp, and so the daily chat list grows.

And on the odd occasion, that I find myself exceeding my daily dose, I just borrow from my Dad. 

 

He’s been dearly departed for over fourteen years, and to my logic, his quota is just going to waste.  Begging to be used.

It would be such a shame, to not utilise it too.  I did have a chat to him though, to ask him if it's okay.  But being a typical man, he's giving me the silent treatment and hasn't answered me yet.

 

Which just goes to prove my point - women do chat more than men.

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