Opinion
It’s time for us all to speak more like the Dutch
A decade in the past, a Dutch good friend really useful that I learn a web-based “Anglo-Dutch translation information”. Written by Nannette Ripmeester, an knowledgeable in labour mobility, this checklist illuminates the pitfalls that emerge when the British and Dutch discuss in what is meant to be the identical tongue, specifically English.
British individuals, Ripmeester explains, usually use phrases in a fashion so riddled with ambiguity that the sense can solely be understood if each the speaker and listener share an implicit cultural body. The Dutch, nonetheless, have a tendency to talk in a much more direct and logical manner, with fewer hidden meanings.
For instance, when the British start a sentence saying, “With all due respect,” they really imply “I believe you might be incorrect”. However a Dutch particular person would hear this phrase and take it actually, considering, “She respects my view”. Equally, if a British particular person says, “That’s an unique standpoint”, a Dutch particular person may assume they have been being praised, when in British parlance the phrase tends to suggest, “That’s a silly concept!”
All this will create embarrassing misunderstandings. The truth is, a miscommunication was why my Dutch good friend pointed me to this information. However apart from the non-public influence, these linguistic twists have an necessary implication for public life. Globalisation and the borderlessness of the web imply that extra of us talk with individuals from different international locations. English stays the lingua franca for big components of the enterprise world, with the English Proficiency Index estimating that 2.5bn individuals use the language, of whom solely 400mn are native audio system.
Aside from the Anglo-Dutch cut up, there are extra nuances in how English is spoken in Canada, the US or Australia (to call however a couple of). So if we need to construct a simpler, democratic and trusting world, we might do higher through the use of language extra straight and logically. It’s time for us to all communicate extra just like the Dutch; even (or particularly) when utilizing English.
To grasp why, it’s price pondering a brand new guide by the enterprise author Kevin Duncan. 5 years in the past, Duncan began a campaign in opposition to what he describes as “bullshit” in company and monetary life — language that’s excessively ambiguous, contradictory or hypocritical. His The Enterprise Bullshit Ebook: A Dictionary for Navigating the Jungle of Company Converse lists phrases he thought must be excised from the workplace, resembling “incentivising”, “get your geese in a row”, “thought management” and so forth.
Now he has launched a follow-up, The Bullshit-Free Ebook, which tries to exchange these hated phrases with higher phrases. In some ways his suggestions quantity to turning British English into the Dutch model. Contemplate the phrase “attain out”. Duncan says this primary cropped up in 1966 in a 4 Tops tune (“Attain Out I’ll be There”), and was then utilized in an advert from AT&T, the telecoms group. Now it’s ubiquitous in company life for the reason that concept of “reaching out” to colleagues creates “a component of vulnerability and softness” or “an emotional, and even religious, part to proceedings”, Duncan says.
However if you happen to cease to consider the which means of these phrases, they’re ridiculous. No person in company life is definitely extending their hand and even desirous to be fuzzy. Duncan suggests we must always change the phrases with an easier one: “discuss”. He additionally hates the phrase “singing from the identical hymn sheet”, arguing it’s higher to only say “agree and painting a united entrance”. He needs “push the needle” (which comes from automobile speedometers) expressed as “work as onerous as we are able to”. “Intestine really feel” and “de-staffing” can be extra actually translated as “intuition” and “redundancies”.
To take Duncan’s personal recommendation, I will probably be sincere and say that these suggestions aren’t significantly unique. Former FT columnist Lucy Kellaway wrote a chunk as early as 1994 mocking enterprise jargon. But it’s price revisiting the topic of company “guff” and asking why it hasn’t gone away. The reply is partly that ambiguity and double discuss don’t emerge accidentally. Their operate is usually to masks a number of the ugly realities of enterprise life or workplace hierarchies. Acquainted idioms, like nicknames, can create a shared cultural base and reinforce our sense of belonging.
However when you must be an insider to grasp what’s going on, you’ve got an issue. And that’s the reason it pays to scale back the bullshit. A world of clubby speech creates limitations to entry, significantly for these 2bn-odd non-native audio system of English (or some other language). Additionally it is a spot that tends to breed cynicism and mistrust — exactly what the enterprise world doesn’t want right now.
So the subsequent time you learn a company chief’s memo or hearken to a politician’s speech, consider that Anglo-Dutch information. Then attempt to think about what may occur if you happen to have been to exchange the “bullshit” with simple speech. Name it, if you happen to like, a dose of double Dutch — albeit not within the common English sense of the phrase (for the reason that seventeenth century, the phrase has been slang for “gibberish”), however within the “logical” sense, ie, twice as direct. Most of us would cheer.
Comply with Gillian on Twitter @gilliantett and electronic mail her at [email protected]
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