Vocabulary Building

Posted by Grant on 4. March 2010 18:40

It's funny, but I've started noticing the word "untamed" cropping up in a lot of the materials for the bigger international adventure races.  I know I should take it as a complement, but I somehow feel ownership over the word!

Here's what I think happens. 

These events are international, and English isn't their native laguage.  I'm there or they've been in conversations with me, or an Untamed team is there, or somehow they hear the "Untamed Adventure" term or "Untamed New England" etc and ask: "What is 'Untamed'" -- and, a give away that they're from Latin America, they pronounce it Un-ta-med (3 syllables). 

Having an English language website and race materials is strongly encouraged for AR World Series events, and most bigger events include English translations or advertisements in English.  Suffice it to say that people are putting together English text who don't have the strongest command of the language; this is when I've seen cases of the word "untamed" sprinkled in.  

I know how this goes, since I struggle with my Swiss German (and a couple other languages here in Switzerland!).  Once I learn a new vocabulary word, I must repeat it and use it as often as possible to commit it to memory.  I don't always use it in the proper context, but I don't care because this is a strategy to build my vocabulary and learn the new word.  

What I think is happening is these events may have just recently learned what "Untamed" means and are putting together materials for their event in English; it's only natural that they would include their new "adventure" vocab word and, hence, the word "untamed" ends up in some new places. 

Places such as these 2010 race websites:

• "Ride the untamed Costa Rican rivers" (source) 
• "The most dramatic section in the history of Explore Sweden, so untamed, so rough, so beautiful" (source)
• "The land is diverse, the challenge real, the adventure untamed" (source)

Maybe I'm flattering myself that our organization is spreading the gospel of "untamed adventure" far and wide.  Maybe I'm off-base and it's just a coincidence.  But, maybe not.

So, who cares?  We should be flattered.  I know we don't hold a monopoly on the term.  I'm sure Eco-Challenge smirks every time somebody mentions adventure racing to a stranger and the reply comes back, "like that Eco-whatever?" 

True story: at the organizer meetings around the AR World Championships last year, one hotel accidentally had a "Welcome Eco-Challenge" sign that about gave Geoff Hunt a seizure! 

No race in North America would casually describe their race as a "primal race" without winking at PrimalQuest.  I'm not suggesting our Untamed Adventure brand is anywhere near the two Eco and Primal giants, just that our organization has staked a claim to the Untamed term and it's interesting to see that we're building English vocab around the world.  For native speakers to weave the word into their marketing, I don't think that's such a big deal, but when I see it used internationally I take some particular satisfaction.

Am I a ego-maniacal for noticing this, or have you found any interesting uses of the Untamed word?