Speak-Art

The other day, I found myself in the middle of an "accountants meeting". It had nothing to do with me, I just tagged along since I had to rest before heading home. My Dad wanted me to become a CPA lawyer and I was actually enrolled in Political Science and Accounting in my freshman year in college. After a couple of units in accounting I realized I had no real love for numbers so I shifted to Political Science and Legal Management. I looooved my PolSci classes, but I was absolutely bored out of my skull during my law classes. I'd rather go through tomes of data than tomes of laws, EOs or bills. It's just not my thing (I'd probably end up like Elle Woods in court).

So that little meeting I found myself in made me realize that aside from different languages and the multitude of dialects we have, there's also the smart-speak of professions. I have observed this since I was a kid and I have learned to adjust how I communicate depending on who I'm speaking with. In sixth grade, my school diagnosed me to have the "gift of language". Duh, don't ask me what that means, my Kuya was the one who attended the session about it.

Anyway, I'm just rambling and thought how difficult it is really to mingle with many different types of people. Here's a couple of languages I encounter from time to time:

1. Geek Speak - ahhh, I'm no techie and that's why I ask a lot of questions when I don't understand something. I often ask Sweetie to explain to me a lot of developer-speak. I also bug a lot of my colleagues to explain things. What's great about developers is they explain things in a structured manner, albeit it's quite difficult to communicate in layman terms, but I have found developers to be very patient teachers.

2. Numbers Speak - accountants. One cannot live without them when you have a business. If you did not have business/accounting units back in college your nose will definitely bleed when they start exchanging accounting terms such as "schedule" (simply means "report"), "trial balance" (watered down version of a balance sheet), and "balance sheet" (that thing that measures your assets and liabilities). I used to do bookkeeping for my Mom's business. It's HARD.

3. Law Speak - if you've had the chance to read blogs written by lawyers you'd know what I'm talking about. The way they write and speak is very logical. It's like a formula, if A is B, and B is C, then A is C. Make sure there is no fallacy in how you do things or you'll get caught. I loved my logic classes back in high school, well that's just what I loved about law. So whenever I had to ask permission from my Dad, it had to follow that fool-proof formula and I had to be ready with evidence to defend my choices.

4. Edu Speak - this is one "language" I have not mastered. I have yet to understand how they manage to put things in modules so they could deliver it in understandable chunks to their students. It's all about learning. Educators ask a lot of questions. If you want to have a very stimulating conversation, go have coffee with an educator.

5. Religious-Order Speak - I used to spend a lot of time with priests since I used to have time to do our parish newsletter. I'd be in their convent at least twice a month and I'd hang-out with them. Everyone seemed to be happy, calm and collected at all times and they managed to weather any challenges with a lot of faith. I guess the religious speak the language of peace.

Well, keep your ears open and observe how people speak. And these are just based on "professions". What about the "language of love"? Kid-speak? Dog-speak? A lot huh? And this is just me thinking aloud.

What language do you speak?