Watching the Olympics is a little bit like learning a foreign language for me. I admit that I don’t know much about any sport, but this really became obvious while watching the Winter Olympics. Time after time the commentators filled their descriptions and play by play coverage of the events with jargon. Ah yes, what IS jargon, after all? Speaking generally, jargon is the vocabulary specific to a group, profession or occupation, and here is the important part; meaningless to those outside the group, profession or occupation.
Ok, so if I was a curling player I might understand the terms “button” and “guard”, or when Mao Asada “nailed her triple axels”,if I were a figure skating enthusiast I’d know exactly what she just accomplished. I don’t follow either sport so I am clueless! The same thing relates to business jargon. In English many jargon phrases have their origin in sports. So, if you don’t understand the term in its sports context, you won’t be able to give it meaning in the business world. For example; the baseball season will start next month so it is likely that terms such as “hit it out of the park”, “strike out”, and “touch base” will be used in sports coverage.
Many of these phrases have made their way into our business conversations and our daily usage. Jargon and idiomatic language is not generally taught. We learn meaning through context. For non-native English speakers who don’t know anything about baseball,it would be even harder to get meanings for these phrases without getting a quick lesson in baseball and then relating the terms to the business world.
So to hit it out of the park is a good thing in baseball; likewise in business it means to do a really good job of something. When someone strikes out in baseball they missed the opportunity to hit the ball, and in business this means that a person was unsuccessful at achieving a goal. In baseball the team member must run and literally touch the square base before moving on to the next base; when we touch base in business it is a figurative touch – to communicate with someone without planning a specific date or time.
Be aware that as you interact with your business colleagues they will most likely include liberal doses of jargon and idioms in their conversational language. While you may be able to understand the general meaning of the conversation, there is deeper meaning hidden in that jargon!
