If you want a fast map of english diction, consume all the standup comedy and prize winning literary fiction you can find. Also, read P.G. Wodehouse, and then watch it performed. Churchills speeches are good to read too. Consider reading or watching Richard Feynman's lectures to get a sense of how a great mind operates.
To be concise and eloquent is also the downstream effect of values that form a personality. It's not something you can affect by imitating, it is the effect of cummulative competence and practice over time. You need the intellectual confidence to ask questions and interrogate your surroundings with benevolent and sincere interest. That confidence comes from finding a kernel of moral clarity that enables you to relate to the world by assuming its approval, to be a protagonist in it, and not a guest or subject who must be meek or deferential to it. Value pith, grit, vision, and humility, but postpone being too humble until you are sure you are great.
"Brevity is the soul of wit," isn't just about humour, it's about intelligence. The essence of english comedy is our surprisingly many synonyms that have wry and ironic collisions in their meanings. Absorbing the comedy practices a sense of humor, which becomes a new sense for interpreting your surroundings. Teasing out the same sense of paradox using humour leads you to the crux of literally every topic. If you can find the joke, you have found the edges of truth and belief.
I used to worry I wasn't being concise until I saw other people try, so take heart.
I wonder if shall/will is a problem that foreign speakers of English struggle with? The distinction is largely nuance, but it makes a big difference to me which word the speaker chooses. "Shall" expresses determination, "will" is normally just intention. But "You shall go to the ball" means something quite different from "You will go to the ball".
In spoken English we often conflate them: "I'll have bacon and eggs." It's not clear whether the speaker is expressing defiance ("Aren't you having black pudding?") or simple intention. I don't know how you learn nuance in English speech, but I think humour must be part of the training.
Do people even use “Shall” in the vernacular anymore? If someone used that word in a work meeting I’d probably do a double take even though I’d understand what they meant. At least in American English.
I will drop a "shall" occasionally if I'm in the mood. "Shall we take a walk?", rather than the "Should we take a walk?" or even "Do you want to take a walk together?" It can lend itself a certain air of grace if delivered correctly. Then again, I'm an American mom in her late 30s - it might not have the same reception if said by anyone else.
Many native english speakers confuse humbleness and humility, and it's an admonishment to not be meek. They are taught to affect humbleness that is not the effect of developing the greatness that would justify it.
I think what you mean is many native speakers simply use the word ‘humble’ in its verb form incorrectly.
No one is humbled by winning an award, that is, brought low or humiliated. Rather an award is typically an exaltation or celebration. What they hamfistedly are trying to say is that they feel unworthy of the award or recognition, and so many otherwise learned people do this it has come to be understood.
I'm saying in its adjective form, being humble is a learned affectation for most people, and in its immoderate form, it makes them resentful that the abasement they are trained to offer isn't reciprocated by others, or the universe they are using it to bargain with because it doesn't care.
To be concise and eloquent is also the downstream effect of values that form a personality. It's not something you can affect by imitating, it is the effect of cummulative competence and practice over time. You need the intellectual confidence to ask questions and interrogate your surroundings with benevolent and sincere interest. That confidence comes from finding a kernel of moral clarity that enables you to relate to the world by assuming its approval, to be a protagonist in it, and not a guest or subject who must be meek or deferential to it. Value pith, grit, vision, and humility, but postpone being too humble until you are sure you are great.
"Brevity is the soul of wit," isn't just about humour, it's about intelligence. The essence of english comedy is our surprisingly many synonyms that have wry and ironic collisions in their meanings. Absorbing the comedy practices a sense of humor, which becomes a new sense for interpreting your surroundings. Teasing out the same sense of paradox using humour leads you to the crux of literally every topic. If you can find the joke, you have found the edges of truth and belief.
I used to worry I wasn't being concise until I saw other people try, so take heart.