THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
IMPROVING YOUR ENGLISH LEARNING
WHAT DOES "GEEK" MEAN ?
Category: LEARNING TIPS Date 2009-04-20 16:19:18
Today, I want to speak about geeks, it is a new word that I learnt a few days ago and it surprised me.
When you look for “geek” in the dictionary, you can read “a person with an unusual or odd personality “ or “a carnival performer who does disgusting acts” but in computer world it is different and “geek” is a word used to define a person who is fascinated by technology and computers. Inside this world it also has different concepts, whereas the meaning in Spanish is only related with technology, in English it has a wide meaning, similar to the Spanish “friki”.
Geeks are people who preferred spending their time on her own business, work, interests, hobbies instead of searching social relationships. Their hobbies are usually focused on the technological environment, they always have last technological “toys” like third generation mobiles, videogames…. They also have a lot of particular features, they have closed communications codes, related to programmes, science-fiction, information networks, videogames… and they are lovers of films, books or videogames similar to Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons…
Their passion to improve their own skills on computers and technological issues makes that they tend to accept and defend Open Source policies to guarantee their rights of learning freely and without tolls.
Moreover, geeks can be hackers but it is very difficult that they recognize themselves as one of them because, being a geek is a humility sign and for them to be a hacker it is a sign of recognition and admiration.
Finally, for them, being “geek” is a life style and they feel proud of that.
