I met a grown man the other day who told my bilingual friend from Korea “you speak English good.”

I smiled a little — maybe he thought I was just beaming from the compliment he’d offered my friend — while contemplating the sad state of our language.

But, let’s be fair.

During the past century, the English language marched across the globe thanks in large part to British Imperialism and American superpower dominance. English is the global lingua franca, the de facto world language. Small surprise, it’s also the world’s wordiest language — both in use and dead.

Why?

We’re gung-ho about borrowing and adapting. While we English speakers might throw archaic words like “philargyrist” out of the dictionary, we’re just as keen to add five new ones. (In case you’re wondering about philargyrist: Google it.)

While many of these new words originate out of the Information Age — no need to tweet about that — the danger comes when you suddenly have grown men who’ve spent their entire lives residing in the United States telling foreigners they “speak English good.”

Despite our language’s progress, we’re backsliding in terms of how we use words to describe how we feel. Granted, Mark Twain once wrote, “when you catch an adjective, kill it,” but I’m certain we might deploy ways to talk about our feelings to our advantage every once and awhile.

We all need a functional way to relay to others our emotions — yup, those silly things. Simple enough: cry at the movies, cheer at a sports game; sometimes our actions evoke what our words cannot.

But, words ought to still knock you down some of the time. Words like, “ridiculous” and “weird” droop and sag so much they hardly have meaning. And when we’re using unclear words, we’re not getting our emotions across. In some cases, I’m sure we’re all employing ambiguity for our own gain, but, if not, we should all struggle toward precision. Otherwise, conversations can be confusing.

Imagine how many times someone has casually dropped the word “love” into a conversation and enraptured an admirer when what they really meant was “I enjoy spending time with you and feel a sense of camaraderie between us.”

We might never actually speak like that, but sometimes, it’s worth it to follow up a vague adjective with detail that actually reveals what we mean to say. Our conversations would be all the livelier for it.

Granted, verbosity is just as dangerous as simplicity, and we might want to leave some words alone — “niggardly” comes to mind. That aside, English speakers have an arsenal of words at their disposal they might arm themselves with.

Try not to use “crazy,” “interesting” and “cool,” to describe every imaginable situation, and you might find yourself communicating more effectively when it matters — writing that cover letter or speaking well during a job interview.

Go for it. Cut those words out of your vocabulary for a week and see what you might be able to substitute.

Reach The Daily’s E-newsletter Editor Andrew Doughman at opinion@dailyuw.com.