Technobilge vs English, Xhosa, Zulu, Venda & Latin

April 25th, 2006 | Global

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Technobilge vs English, Xhosa, Zulu, Venda & Latin

For some years now I have become increasingly concerned at the increasing use of techno jargon and acronyms in everyday discussions and articles and the arrogant assumptions by the users of acronyms that we immediately know what is being discussed. If it annoys me that many of the acronyms used are not understood in English, please imagine the frustration non-English speaking people must have. To see what I mean, look at the relatively easy example below:

What If Media 2.0 Is Less Profitable Than Media 1.0?

A simple enough question but what is Media 1.0 and Media 2.0? If you did not know any better, I couldn’t blame you for probably thinking or guessing that the question relates to the profit margins between two similar products that a factory manufactures for resale. You would also be forgiven for thinking it was a question raised by a corporate accountant.

Well, you’d be wrong on both counts. The question does not relate to products and it was not asked by the type of person you’d immediately associate the question with.

Please speak plain english! Stop talking technobilge

Let’s face it, if you are wanting to sound as if you are on the edge then nothing beats tekkiebabble. You can really sound cute and up with it and in the zone when you do, but if half your audience think you are a prat for being so inconsiderate, please save our ears and your integrity by speaking plain english. Better still, explain to those blank looking faces what Media 2.0 or whatever the acronym is short for. You never know - you might go from nerdprat to guru in a couple of sentences and that is a good thing isn’t it?

Moer One of these or all of them!

5 comments ↓

#1 AfroM on 04.25.06 at 6:31 pm

lol.
(I’ve been lurking quietly but figured i would just mention that your humour is just err irreverent…very cool blog)
little nerdprat.

“What If Media 2.0 Is Less Profitable Than Media 1.0?” - something about another bubble/balloon bursting? interesting question.

#2 AfroM on 04.25.06 at 6:32 pm

ps: iam the little nerdprat…you forgot to include..signed little nerdprat…
ok.
me=very little nerdprat.

#3 Rob on 04.26.06 at 2:13 am

Thanks for the comment AfroM

I so love nerdyprats! :0)

We all need to enter conversations each day and it just helps if the wordage being shunted about is easily understandable and in a common language. Did I mention that back in the 90’s when I first worked in Telcoms, I was regaled by a senior executive (a real nice guy but unfortunately the singlemost knowledgable and enthusiastic engineer I ever met up to that time) for 10 minutes about something that I later learnt was a longlandline to a CCTV unit on Victoria station.

I learnt something that day which I vowed never to amend - go to university to get a telcom’s engineering degree so that I could speak in the code! I was just so happy I spoke English!

Be well
Rob

#4 hash on 04.26.06 at 8:33 pm

Rob, great group of postings on technobabble. Holy crap do I ever sound like an idiot sometimes. Must…learn…to…speak…normal…again…!

#5 Rob on 04.27.06 at 2:19 am

Hi Hash!

Thanks for the visit and the comment.

LOL! Please do not become too phonetic or robotic in the delivery! Let it flow nice n easy. Like Sunday morning swims at Kampala’s Top Club! Yeah! Until we got banned for bringing in a transistor radio !

Years later, I now appreciate the raucus we caused through our brash assumption that everyone poolside would like to listen to the BBC’s Worlwide Service. Wrong!