Improving vocabulary

I remember when my cousin was two or three years old my aunt taught her to say, "I have an extensive vocabulary."

Nowadays, I pay attention to vocabulary because it helps me communicate in more than one language. (I really need to increase my foreign language vocabulary.)
And because I teach vocabulary lessons to kids.

One day the boys' mom said she noticed her older son was using the word "disgusting" a lot lately, and he seemed to be using it correctly. She didn't know where he'd picked it up.
"That's from me," I said. "I say that all the time." And yeah, I'd noticed that both of them had begun using this new vocabulary, especially about penmanship.
Can't fault their usage, though.

Another word I heard the older boy use was "whatever". And I have my suspicions that he got that one from me, too. I cringed when I heard him say it to his neighborhood friends about their latest soccer 'rules'. Oh, he used it correctly, all right. He had the proper attitude behind it to imply all he meant to say. I'm really hoping he picked that up from someone other than me--can I blame it on tv?
But I very thoughtfully accept the responsibility of at least introducing the term to him, and also very thoughtfully consider being much more careful about saying it myself. Especially when the attitude I convey is: "whatever you say doesn't matter, listen to me".
Hmm. Not very nice.

The younger brother has started beginning his sentences with "actually..." I might have to take credit for that, too.

Ah so. Vocabulary. Good and bad.
I wanted you to know that I added a nifty thing to this page called AnswerTips. So if you double click on any word on this page, it should bring up the definition for you. Pretty cool, huh? I thought so.
I highly approve of positive vocabulary improvement.
If your looking for another way of improving your vocabulary and feeding the hungry, visit http://www.freerice.com/.