Thursday, October 24, 2013

My definition of smart and talented

I find myself getting into the habit of learning English words by chewing them over and over again in my head, particularly when I am out running and biking, you know, when almost everyone else is plugging their ears with earphones...  

Today, I cannot get these words out of my head: Smart and Talented

Smart is what you are born with and Talented is what you learn to be.  


Do they make sense to you all?    

In Chinese, they should be translated as the following:

聪明 Cōngmíng = smart
能干 Nénggàn = talented

Feel free to correct me.

Edit:

After I posted this, I consulted the Google and then I found someone named eggman said this: Smart is a state of being and talented is an attribute.  But then he sort of agreed with me by saying: you can be talented without being smart, but if you are smart you already have a talent.  

Anyway, based on what I found out, I must admits to you that my Chinese translation of "talented" more closely means "skilled and capable".  And after chewing those words some more time, I kind of believe that most English speaking people prefer to use "talented" to describe "gifted" people and "smart" to describe just about anyone and everyone.  

Clearly, to master English, I have long way to go.