Recent reports indicate that new jobs are being created in some abundance but that there aren’t enough candidates who can speak and write clearly to fill those aborning positions. Part of the mismatch between job availability and the dearth of qualified applicants can be traced to lack of education in the art and craft of expository writing. When the Department of Education in 2012 published “The Nation’s Report Card: Writing 2011,” just 24 percent of eighth- and 12th-graders were proficient in writing.
The number of literate college graduates has also declined dramatically over the past two decades. Could it be that the global, speed-of-byte interconnectivity we enjoy through television, texting and social media comes at the expense of our fundamental language skills? We communicate more, but we say less.
That’s a crying shame because in a recent survey of corporate recruiters by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the organization that administers the standardized test for business school, 86 percent said strong communication skills were a priority — well ahead of any other skill. We must shrink this communications gap.
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Another recent study indicates that littering your business statements with buzzwords and buzzphrases seriously weakens the message you’re trying to put across. Researchers at New York University and the University of Basel found that readers are more likely to think that you’re a dissembler if your business pitch is clogged with the likes of “bang for the buck,” “cutting-edge,” “level the playing field” and “out of pocket.”
Drawn from English language LinkedIn profiles from around the world, the 10 most globally overused buzzwords in 2013 were (1) responsible (used more than twice as frequently as any other word on the list), (2) strategic, (3) creative (most of the countries studied yielded the same top-three buzzwords — responsible, strategic and creative — and in the same order), (4) effective, (5) patient, (6) expert, (7) organizational, (8) driven, (9) innovative, (10) analytical.
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An October 2013 online survey of 2,020 adults found that only 27 percent of Americans say they can converse in more than one language, while 73 percent say they can’t. That’s why the following riddle strikes many of us as spot-on:
What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks one language? American.
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In addition to his exemplary life, the late Jerry Coleman, the voice of the San Diego Padres, was known for his endearing “Colemanisms,” slips of the tongue committed in the broadcast booth. From the trove of Colemanisms I’ve collected over the years here are my 10 favorites:
• Rick Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen.
• Sunday is Senior Citizens’ Day. And if you want to become a senior citizen, just call the Padre ticket office.
• Mike Caldwell, the Padres’ right-handed southpaw, will pitch tonight.
• The pitcher has a blister on the index hand of his pitching finger.
• If Pete Rose brings the Reds in first, they ought to bronze him and put him in cement.
• Edwards missed getting Stearns at third base by an eyeball.
• George Hendrick simply lost that sun-blown pop-up.
• [Dave] Winfield goes back to the wall. He hits his head on the wall, and it rolls off. It’s rolling all the way back to second base. This is a terrible thing for the Padres.
• That big guy, Winfield, at 6’6”, can do things only a small man can do.
• Ozzie Smith just made another play that I’ve never seen anyone else make before, and I’ve seen him make it more often than anyone else ever has.
Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com