Turns out I am bilingual!!
Aug. 19th, 2004 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI've always felt inferior because I only know one language and don't even have a substantial grasp on that one. I'm one of those idiots who looks at a child who's speaking a language other than English and is so impressed with how brilliant he is linguistically. By the way, sadly, I do this even in countries where the native language is not English....
But, it finally dawned on me today that I am, in fact, totally fluent in another language - in corporate-speak... specifically the technical dialect. This has been harboring around in my kaleidescope mind now for several days but bubbled up to the surface a minute ago when I typed the phrase:
"She does need me to show her some things..."
What I actually typed the first time was "She does need me for knowledge transfer..."
Seriously, I really did that. I fixed it before anyone but me saw it, but it was there and it was my 'default'.
I've spent many many years in corporate confines. I know that it is critical to always use your speaker phone to prove you are important and to make sure your calendar is double and triple booked at all times. True calendar integrity is the mark of someone who is too new to count or on their way out.
Add to this, the current novel that I am smack in the middle of: Joseph Finder's Paranoia. The premise is that a young uninspired corporate geek figures out how to trick the finance department of a technology giant into paying for an executive level going away party for his friend retiring from a career on the loading dock. He gets caught and instead of having him arrested for fraud, they groom him and send him to get a job with the competition. They turn him into a corporate spy.
The book is written almost totally corporate speak. They drill down to get to the killer power point to validate that the concept for the latest customer solution is not just vapor ware. And more. It's hilarious and so true and so funny and I can not only follow it, I don't even realize - a lot of the time - that I'm in another language. I'm so proud.
But, it finally dawned on me today that I am, in fact, totally fluent in another language - in corporate-speak... specifically the technical dialect. This has been harboring around in my kaleidescope mind now for several days but bubbled up to the surface a minute ago when I typed the phrase:
"She does need me to show her some things..."
What I actually typed the first time was "She does need me for knowledge transfer..."
Seriously, I really did that. I fixed it before anyone but me saw it, but it was there and it was my 'default'.
I've spent many many years in corporate confines. I know that it is critical to always use your speaker phone to prove you are important and to make sure your calendar is double and triple booked at all times. True calendar integrity is the mark of someone who is too new to count or on their way out.
Add to this, the current novel that I am smack in the middle of: Joseph Finder's Paranoia. The premise is that a young uninspired corporate geek figures out how to trick the finance department of a technology giant into paying for an executive level going away party for his friend retiring from a career on the loading dock. He gets caught and instead of having him arrested for fraud, they groom him and send him to get a job with the competition. They turn him into a corporate spy.
The book is written almost totally corporate speak. They drill down to get to the killer power point to validate that the concept for the latest customer solution is not just vapor ware. And more. It's hilarious and so true and so funny and I can not only follow it, I don't even realize - a lot of the time - that I'm in another language. I'm so proud.
