Need to sound more educated…

[Whoopdedoop]

I’ve got a senior CS job, which I can do well, I’m respected, visible regionally and nationally, and generally in a good place.

I am noticing my colleagues, same grade, use words and phrases that sound more high brow - for example I might say let’s look at the details and they would say we need to focus on a granular level. Or I might say we need to think big, and they say we should consider the art of the possible.

It’s not every day or meeting that I need these phrases, but when talking to senior mangers and if I want to be considered for promotion, I think I need to sound more educated.

Does anyone know of any resource I could study, or people I can follow, or courses I could attend, that would help me sound more like them?

Thanks.

That's not educated, it's arseholery. There is nothing wrong with using clear plain language!

You just need to do a bit of blue-sky thinking, pivot to a new comms style and remember to circle back regularly. You can keep to your wheelhouse, but you may need to segue to a new road map.

Honestly don’t over think. It’s classic bullshit bingo. Office slang if you like. It doesn’t make anyone sound more educated at all.

Are you serious? Why would you want to sound like a pretentious dick?

Haha! I was going to say exactly the same. That's weird management speak. They are not more educated. I had a manager who liked to say 'that's not in my gift' i.e. I can do fuck all about that. Arseholary.

They sound like twats to me op.

god nooo the reason you are respected is because you don’t talk like that!!

Nah, they sound like div’s and you sound like you could get the job done.

My rule is generally, the more management speak that people use, the less they actually know what they’re talking about and are saying words for the sake of it.

Be yourself fuck everyone else - there is a reason why you’re good at your job.

Stay being you. The older I get, the less impressed I am with these people and their buzz words.

There is a ‘dictionary of corporate bullshit ‘book? That may help. Otherwise watch reruns of the office maybe?

That's not being educated, that's knowing how to use buzz phrases. It won't impress anyone for you to use the same jargon.

As long as you are clear and gramatically correct, especially in written work, you'll be doing fine.

I agree with everyone else.

They sound far from high brow or well educated; they are full of management speak and corporate bullshit.

Please don't change your perfectly clear language to emulate arseholes.

So you use proper English and they use stupid, wanky corporate jargon? Fgs don't copy them - that is not the way intelligent people sound when they talk.

if you wish to sound more intelligent just read ,find big books. All kinds of genres see what takes your fancy ,but i agree with the others

If you want to speak better, try reading passages of dialogue from classic books out loud. I would recommend:

Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited
Aldous Huxley: Point Counter Point

The dialogue in those novels is exquisite. Read them out loud and you’ll absorb the rhythm and vocabulary. Also, try Virginia Woolf and George Eliot - and maybe even Jane Austen. I know someone will say they’ll make you sound old-fashioned, but I’m not suggesting you speak like a Regency aristocrat! You can absorb and adapt.

People used to teach the young to speak well. Sadly it’s something we no longer do, and many people seem incapable of stringing a sentence together (just listen to a police officer outside court - it’s painful).

Thanks for reaching out, @Whoopdedoop - can I circle back to you on this…

🙃

Is this a joke? That's corporate-speak bollocks. People who talk like that dont sound educated at all; they sound like contestants on Love Island / The Apprentice.

😂😂How glad am I that I retired at 60 and no longer have to listen to corporate bullshitters. They make themselves look immature, not intelligent.

I am well educated, read very widely when younger, and use a wide vocabulary when speaking. They’ve been on too many management training courses. My experience with the CS (from 20 years ago) was that they’d happily send you on training courses if you asked.

I was going to say too that those words they used sound like jargon rather than the product of education.

Your words sound clear. There will be a good reason you are working at this level. You can learn these words they are using if you want, but you are more than fine as you are imo.

If anyone used that sort of corporate wankspeak to me, I'd be trying very hard not to either roll my eyes or laugh out loud.

They're not well educated, just ridiculous.

That’s not educated, they’re using the love language of LinkedIn.

Can we stick a pin in this, then circle back?

Generally just speak a bit slower, it sounds more educated!