Monday 26 August 2013

A world full of Jargon

Out of the many things that fascinate me about the world of business, usage of Jargon is one thing that takes a toll on me. It's not about the very existence of it, but my concern lies in the misuse of it. 

3 reasons why I strongly believe Jargon are a total no-no. 



1) The Vision and Mission statement mania: I do not know if it is just me, but I somehow land up not understanding the vision and mission statements of most companies. I'd rather skip it than try and understand something that totally makes me feel like a foreigner there! If mission and vision are things so vital for a company, why is it deliberately sentenced so against normal understanding? 

2) The Unwanted abbreviations: "The best way to get our customers to talk in this situation is by using the FGD mechanism", said my fellow student. FGD!? Oh a focus group discussion. right! Sorry that didn't strike me soon and certainly disrupted my flow of concentration. Now my question is,  how much time and energy did we actually save up by making an abbreviation of an otherwise easy to understand term? How much do I approve of the very "Focus Group Discussion" term will be a story I will save for another day.

3) If you can't convince, confuse : Sometimes people play around with jargon when they clearly cannot prove themselves. I once happened to read an undergrad college's educational brochure that says "We offer contemporary globally acceptable and holistic curriculum" There was another college that said, "We offer World class holistic global education" Ok! Now I don't really know or want to know how they differ from one one another. This is what I personally call a forceful usage of Jargon! 

Scientists say we practically use only 1% of our brain. I opine that it's not because we don't attempt to use the rest of it, but because half the things that interest us in the world are covered up under the necessity to understand the veil over them- the Jargon. Our interest soon dissolves much before we reach anywhere close to it. 

People say "It's easy, it's not Rocket Science" If not for the horrifying jargon around us, may be someday many of us will attempt to even understand Rocket science too!

4 comments:

  1. Loved the one on vision and mission. Some of them are very absurd. For example one company had this vision of serving the customers in every market we are present in. Right that was very innovative.

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  2. So true sir. Thank you for your feedback :)

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  3. good writing harika, very interesting :)

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