I was reminiscing about college the other day and was thinking about the adjustments I made while living in the South (despite the fact that Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon Line and qualifies as being in the “South” we are not considered southern by anyone in the “true” South nor do we consider ourselves Southerners). 

Having never traveled any further than the Eastern Shore I was in for a few unknowns. When I first moved to North Carolina, getting used to the way people spoke was difficult. First and foremost, if you have never heard a Burlington accent, it sounds like a banjo, literally. After I was able to grasp the accent I realized there were a number of words that were commonplace that I had never heard of.

 I remember the first time I was in the grocery store and heard someone call a “shopping cart” a “buggy“. I turned around expecting to see an old-time Victorian-era baby carriage. I was equally surprised when my old roommate referred to ALL types of soda as “Coke”. Anne, Sprite is not Coke, sorry. And there is, of course, the classic use of “y’all” both referring to a single person as well as a group (a personal favorite of Brittney Spears), you don’t ”turn” the lights on, you “cut” them on,  the evening meal I call “dinner” is known as “supper” and “dinner” is “lunch”, and my personal favorite, when about to say something absolutely horrible about someone, you begin the sentence with the phrase “bless his/her/its heart“, similar to using the phrase, “with all due respect” or “not to be mean, but…” and this absolves the speaker of any negative connotation to the context of the insult.

 We all live in the same country, we all speak English, and yet, in many ways we are speaking different languages. This made me think about other instances where communication is challenging. The workplace is an environment where people have trouble communicating. We have become so self-sufficient that often, we forget to look above our computer screens to see that we are interdependent, despite our varying roles and responsibilities. Even though we have different titles at our respective places of work, we still need to be able to communicate effectively with our colleagues. The big question is, how do we do that?

 I have found trying to convey simple information to people in different departments where I work can sometimes be a challenge. Factors that can cause difficulty in communicating include, but are not limited to: level of education, age, job role, gender, access to resources, motivation, as well as a number of other reasons. Consistency is difficult to achieve if you are constantly trying to figure out what the other person is “saying.” Trying to solve a problem, write a report, or send a simple email can feel more like an Abbott and Costello skit than a productive day at the office. So, based on all these considerations, is there a way to create a universal language within a work environment?



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