A good part of
my day is taken up with words. I’ve been
thinking recently about how our language is changing and words and their
meaning seem to get lost in the process.
We write and talk in shorthand.
We no longer have time to craft our thoughts into the right words and
phrases; we have to get them out before someone else says something, or in
response to some deadline.
When I was an
instructor in the Air Force I came up with this idea about how to tell as a
student he or she had progressed from neophyte to a “professional.” My theory was each profession has its own
shorthand, its own set of words that mean something specific to that
profession. For example, watch any
doctor show and you will hear “STAT” at least once. I think we have all figured out that means
now, or hurry. In the military we use
acronyms like crazy. Almost everything
seems to get shortened into acronyms.
Once we are used to them they become our shorthand, and we seem to
forget they only mean things to us. I
used to tell my students that once they knew 100 acronyms they could consider
themselves professionals, because they could converse with other
“professionals” in their field.
So now when I
ask someone to craft a paper or a briefing for a senior officer most of it
seems to be written in this shorthand, and I often feel like I need a secret
decoder ring as I attempt to get clear communication. For example here area samples of what pass
for complete thoughts.
-
The FABS/SABIR combination was successful in the
Flt Demo recently performed
-
The UARSSI was installed inline, rather than
post production, saving 10 months
-
BLK 7/Inc 3 will cost $xxM in NRE
Acronyms are
useful when attempting to save space or pass critical information quickly but
they have become an everyday crutch that impairs our ability to communicate
effectively. I wonder if this can all be
traced back to when we first started using radios to communicate or does it
trace back to even earlier?
Oh well, who can
tell? OVER & OUT.
3 comments:
An interesting point...it is true that communicating information is much different that communicating essence or beauty. Language has a hold on you...
The clergy doesn't have the same problem with acronyms, but we have plenty of vocabulary that means something to us, but little to others. Some of that is really obvious: eschatology, ontological, perichoresis. Other words seem clear, but often aren't: sin, faith, grace. Most of us are smart enough to avoid the first category, but we can use second category words without much thought and communicate very little thereby. And it has to do with the same reason that the military uses acronyms. We are trying to impart information efficiently. I sometimes wonder how much of what I preach is gibberish to the average parishioner.
Fire and Brimstone seem to have lost their effectiveness.
Post a Comment