JARGON AND COMMUNICATION

                                    Of jargon and communication

When we were in the prime of the youth, there were books that we read to build the vocabulary, like Wilfred funk, norman lewis etc...  Thanks to USA ( GRE)  aspirants and IIM aspirants. Me and my friends would keep asking one another the meaning of each word and get huge and kicks. Words like rodomontade, gibberish, garrulous, rendezvous were popular and we would just revel on them. I can’t deny that, there was also a subtle arrogance on the vocabulary strength each of us had.   We were kind of ostentatious about the use of the word or knowledge of the word. I am talking about the time, where the knowledge of mobile phone, laptop, wasn’t there. Forget about android phones and applications.  The word application then meant, applying for the bank job or UPSA, APPSC etc.

These days, the jargon, the vocabulary that the technological advancements and use of gadgets has built is amazing and mind blowing as Mahesh babu utters in Dhookudu. When i started using the PC extensively and regularly, i would grope for words and expressions to express myself. Words like configure and default would never strike me and i would get amazed at “Normal people” (definition being, normally they would not know so much English vocabulary) using words like booting, router, cursor, hyperlink, pointer, versions, processor , synchronize, back up, resolution, screen saver , drag and drop, etc.

I have nothing against office boys and people who have had very less formal education , but even they use words like activate, shut down, highlight, GB, KB, memory, hard disk , space and many such words.. Actually, it is doing a lot good to them as their thinking horizons are expanding. During most times i keep wondering at the ease in the use of English in everyday life and just get into the past and keep thinking. The rampant use of Mobile and everyday advancement in the mobile technology is only helping this cause. There is this unknown binding among people as they talk the same language. Hence they get connected. The good ends here. Smsing and spell checks in mobiles and PC’s have changed the usage of English. Even i depend a lot on spell checks and the green lines that come as underline whenever there is some grammar mistake. Wonder what these green lines are called. I am challenged myself to express.

But all happens for good and all these makes life very exciting. But i can’t still get over the fun of learning the vocabulary in the traditional manner and look into Dictionary ( a Proper big fat book... Oxford, chambers etc) .. Chambers was real big fat and it was a status symbol to have this. I have often seen that sms’s have only increased the fights and insecurity in relationships and the genuine make up’s are more effective in the snail mail or the pain taken in visiting the person. Most times, the anger, temper and the bad mood would die when we took time to visit people in the absence of mobile and applications.

Technology is never bad and we all know how it can be put to best use if we optimise the usage and its best to combine with the traditional mode of learning and communicating. It only gets richer that way. There is no substitute to shake hands, hugs, and eye contact, no matter how much ever one uses the symbols and smileys to communicate all this. Bade dinonke baad chitti and the hurry in tearing the inland letter to read what my friend SVS has written or what my dad wrote when i went to Guntur is more fulfilling and inexplicable than receiving a convenient sms or a message thru whatsapp or BBM.  There is nothing to belittle anyone or anything here. I need to thank my IT colleague Prabhakar for his help in jargon and salesman in Sangeetha mobile with his natural use of English and hundreds of youngsters who are so good in the use of any new gadget.

What a wonder life is......................