Would you expect a young (ish) adult to know what a nomad is?

[Pallyum]

I’m in a cafe, just me and a table of 3 lads, probably early 20’s or so. I’m not intentionally eavesdropping I promise but the cafe is quiet, and they are not!

One of them just described someone he knew as a nomad, and one of the others asked what a nomad was.

*nonplussed

@ShowOfHands

You don't know what you don't know.

If they haven't come across the word before then that's simply a fact all on its own. Doesn't necessarily mean they aren't well read or educated.

This. I’m sure they know things you don’t OP

Plenty of threads on here with people "lol"-ing and being totally aghast at fairly basic words and facts so it's not really surprising.

I'd say yes but mainly due to the popularisation of 'digital nomad' rather than our education system being good enough to cover nomads in the curriculum.

@RosyPoesy

Yes of course I’d expect someone to know a commonplace word like that. But given that they’re in a cafe on Monday when they should be at work, they’re probably not that bright.

LOL!

I'm having a coffee out on a Monday afternoon.

I'm pretty well educated and employed: bet I earn more than you too 😉

We really need to move away from the notion that people who have real jobs and are properly educated must work 9-5 mon-fri.

As others have said, you don't know what you don't know. And why do people keep rising to @Rosey Posey. She has early and quite clearly been identified as an arse.

Nomad is also the word used for a nominated advisor financial services firm that has been approved by the London Stock Exchange. Do I get bonus points?

Probably not tbh but obviously it depends what their interests are. I hadn't heard it before until I started backpacking and #vanlife

I think there’s a big difference between knowledge and intelligence.
I know lots of facts because I do a lot of reading and look things up if I don’t know what a word means or how something works.
That doesn’t mean I am intelligent just because I know all of these facts, just that I have a decent memory.

It’s a topic that would have appeared in a school textbook, probably several times. Perhaps English was a second language? They may have learnt the term, just in another language.

Well I just had to look it up

I didn't know, now I do. That's usually how learning works and it would be hard to find someone who knows absolutely everything.

I would have thought so maybe it just passed him by hopefully his friend enlightened him and he learned something new today,. What with him being not that bright because he was in a cafe on a Monday

@RosyPoesy

Yes of course I’d expect someone to know a commonplace word like that. But given that they’re in a cafe on Monday when they should be at work, they’re probably not that bright.

But at least one of these young, low IQ, feckless layabouts, drinking coffee on a Monday morning did know what the word meant. Because he used it, then probably explained it to his friend.

@RosyPoesy

Yes of course I’d expect someone to know a commonplace word like that. But given that they’re in a cafe on Monday when they should be at work, they’re probably not that bright.

How ignorant!

It isnt a word very commonly in use these dsys. I get the feeling it mighg be looked upon as a little bit non pc.

I have known what the word nomad means since I learned it at about age 8/9. But I wouldn't assume that everyone else does...

Why would nomad would be non pc ?

I would.

But then on a recent Gogglebox soome of the participants revealed some very surprising vocab gaps, including the words extrovert and author, I think.

I saw a Facebook thread which popped up on my timeline today because a friend had commented on it. It was a woman asking for ideas for term Time jobs. Someone recommended looking at Civil Service jobs and her answer was 'what is civil service'. That surprised me tbh. But I guess we all walk different paths!

I would say lots of young adults don't tend to read novels, and actually don't tend to watch much TV/film, so they miss out on that language.

Many (educated, bright) young adults I know rarely or never watch movies or TV dramas and prefer short videos on tiktok or youtube for their entertainment.

At least they asked what it meant and didn’t just either pretend to know or weren’t bothered about finding out.

I think of nomad really in the context of nomadic tribes or digital nomads. The lad might have been using it relation to someone who couch surfs or something like that and the others were maybe a bit confused and not sure if they knew the correct meaning.

But surely some 20 somethings might have watched TV with parents as kids or documentaries we used to watch a lot of nature or travel documentaries some had nomadic tribes with our kids I don't believe all 23 year olds grew up not reading or watching TV . I know it's a case of you know what you know but I do think the young adults did learn things from parents or TV not just school.

On the 20th anniversary I asked one of the young lads I work with how old he was on 9/11 and if he remembered it.

I was not prepared for having to actually explain what 9/11 was..

I once referenced the singer Toyah to a group of blank faced teenagers who had never heard of her.

That led to the subject of Punk rock which they also had never heard of.