Now let’s play the

ACCORDING to my website, I’m an expert in communications.

A journalist who worked across print, radio and television for many years before hanging my shingle on the other side of the professional divide with a business in public relations and communications.

I like to think I know what I’m doing and reckon I’m pretty sharp when it comes to the use of the English language.

But in working recently with a couple of large organisations, I’ve been left feeling a little short-changed in my grasp of the corporate lexicon. You can call it management speak, corporate jargon or buzz

word bingo, but I’m convinced that the larger the organisation, the more determined it seems to be to use language that quickly starts sounding like a thigh-slapping episode of the ABC’s satirical comedy Utopia.

You see, I was under the impression that you simply contacted someone you needed to get in touch with. However, apparently now the appropriate corporate parlance is that one “reaches out” to one’s intended contact.

And trust me, that’s just the start of a whole parallel universe of saying stuff in a way that makes you feel like you’ve entered some sect that speaks a language all of its own.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been “looping back” to discuss “core competencies” as we’ve

SPEAK NO EVIL: Jargon has taken over at the expense of simple language in big corporations.