Is it just me or is the language of the office getting more and more difficult to understand? "Our budget has been reallocated from 50/50 'above the line' to 70/30 'below the line' to cater to current commercial conditions."

Err ... which line would that be, then?

Or: "Due to limits on time, we need to facilitate the 'offline' version for the preview screening with our client."

Okay, okay - just tell me which button to press!

As life gets more and more specialised, language follows suit: There's simply no escape these days from the jargon sprouting up in every corporate organisation.

"It was as if I wasn't a part of the meeting," admits a marketing employee who asked not to be named. She recalls her first few meetings when she was bombarded with corporate jargon. "It took me a while to learn all these terms."

Since then, her jargon list has only been growing. Now she knows that she's got to "cover all bases" if she wants to be "in the loop" and make sure it's a "win-win" situation.

But the trouble with jargon is nothing new. Doctors are a case in point. How many of us have sat listening while a doctor gives his or her prognostication, wondering just what all those medical terms mean?

In Thailand, though, we think we've found a shortcut for all the jargon needed to keep up to date with technological changes: It's "Thinglish". It seems that a number of us have decided to insert English words into our conversations instead of adapting our native language to the modern world. New vocabulary had been invented but most of it was too difficult to remember (or even to pronounce). In short, it wasn't practical for daily conversation, and English terms were adopted instead.

But was this such a good idea? Jargon causes plenty of problems for English-speaking people. Spare a thought for Thais then, who are bombarded with a gobbledegook that's not even in their original language.

Sarawut M studied languages in college but has been working as a translator for the past five years. His job, translating and editing software manuals, means he has to communicate with programmers five days a week.

Trying to understand computer language is already difficult, says Sarawut, but talking to a programmer and making them explain the process in everyday language is even tougher. "They may as well be talking to me in binary code."

However, Sarawut admits that his educational background hasn't given him the tools to be able to communicate with his colleagues.

Mass communications lecturer Nitida Sangsingkeo explains that there's a problem of unequal knowledge about subjects. "Though the world is now full of niches, people still assume an equal knowledge of their subject in those around them."

Dr Amporn Benjaponpitak, director of the government's Mental Health Centre 13, argues that people in certain professions are weak when it comes to verbal communication because they so rarely have to explain things to the layman. Computer programmers, laboratory scientists and doctors are prime examples.

Either their thinking is too fast for their tongues to catch up with or they can't find more common words for what they want to get across, Amporn says. "It's hard for them to think in a language that's not in their textbooks."

"But it helps speed communication," counters Kanyarak A, an employee in the marketing department of a local company. She explains that the code used in her meetings boosts efficiency. It helps, though, she adds, if everyone has a similar level of knowledge and work experience.

In her previous job at an international corporation, Kanyarak enjoyed bandying about business argot with her colleagues. At her new place, though, most of her colleagues and the management learn about products through the job. "They were blank looks when I slipped in some corporate jargon."

Nitida thinks there should be orientation and work-rotation programmes in workplaces, especially in large corporations, to allow a newcomer to learn the different technical terms and working practices. She cites the helpful orientation period she underwent when she worked for an airline, where insiders needed to know the lingo.

But Kanyarak is learning to adapt to her new workplace. She's learning to talk less in codes with her new colleagues. And when she's hanging out with college friends who work in banking and advertising, she says she never discusses work.

"Because I don't get it when they talk about banking. And they don't get it when I talk about my job."

Sirinya Wattanasukchai

The Nation