Tuesday 28 August 2007

"Say What You Mean" - Christopher Russell, 2002

Sometimes "business speak" just drives me crazy. Why do people in the business world have to come up with (what they think are) cool terms for everything? Why can't they just say what they mean in the first place?

Here's an example, from the news this morning on the BBC.

Here in the UK, we're hearing about the problems with the subprime mortgage market in the US. It's having an effect on the stock market here, and it appears that even some of the UK banks are involved.

During a report on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast this morning about one of the UK banks, a so-called industry expert used the term "impaired mortgages" rather than subprime or high-risk mortgages.

Impaired? Oh, come on....enough, already!

Janet

2 Comments:

At 28 August, 2007 13:58 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Worse than the "business speak" you wrote about is the poor grammar some of the news readers use. Specifically, the use of "I" or "we" rather than "me" or "us" following a preposition.

 
At 28 August, 2007 16:46 , Blogger Heather Plett said...

Oh man, do I ever know what you mean! I've always thought it would be fun to write a comedy sketch filled with as much "business speak" as possible.

 

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