Christian Communication Training
A door by any other name…may not open? So, if it’s NOT a door, what is it exactly? Post your guess.
see more epicfails
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Over the years, the meanings of words do change and for many different reasons. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of these words. Enjoy!
Some words have changed meanings for technological reasons.
1. A tweet used to be the sound a bird makes. Now it’s a 140 character message you type on a social networking site where people share things from political news to what they had for dinner.
2. The word friend is now a verb. Where I used to have a friend over for dinner, I now “friend” someone on Facebook and tell them what I had for dinner.
3. Text used to be a noun meaning the original words and form of a written or printed work. Now it’s a verb meaning to send a message via cell phone.
Some words have changed as common usage has changed.
1. The word ultimate means the last in a list of items. However, it’s been widely used to indicate the best as in “the ultimate driving machine,” the slogan used by BMW. This word is so widely misused that if you “google” (a word invented for the Information Age) it, you will find most of the entries refer to the word as meaning the best.
2. The words fewer and less have been used interchangeably. Less is supposed to be used when comparing quantities that can’t be counted. You’d like less trouble. Fewer is to be used for comparing items you can count. Nobody wants fewer dollars! However, we are encouraged to tweet in 140 characters or less.
Some words have been accepted after being incorrectly overused.
1. The word literally has literally lost all meaning. Defined as something that is actually taking place, literally has been used in place of the word “really” so often, that it has become accepted or literally ignored in the sentence. I’ve been so frustrated by this misuse that I am literally hopping mad.
2. Totally is another word that has been similarly redefined and overused. You could totally take out all the totally meaningless words totally from this sentence and totally be left with a totally meaningless sentence. Totally!
And finally some words have changed meaning totally because of technological opportunities to incorrectly use and overuse accepted slang.
All people have a heart. Some people have heart, but these days, people ♥ all kinds of things. In fact, if you don’t know how to create a heart symbol with your keyboard, you can simply say “I heart you” and most everyone will understand and think you clever.
What other words have been redefined? You should totally share the ones you ♥!
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For detailed articles/tips on various communication topics, free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subscribe now and get JoJo’s free eBook, Communication Activities: Finding Time to Talk to Your Children is a Busy World.
I just had to put this to you and ask what you all think about this new Facebook practice. More and more people are setting up Facebook fan pages. Companies have one, authors, entertainers…Bubble Wrap! Everybody has a fan page. However, the practice of trying to keep your fans “engaged” has taken its toll on the page owners time.
I usually post three or four times a day on my fan page, but some people post ten or twenty times a day on their fan pages. I could see how that might become combersome. So what’s a page owner to do? Outsource! Many Facebook fan page owners are now hiring a Virtual Assistant to take care of these daily tasks for them.
Sometimes it’s not readily apparent. The VA posts as if she is the page owner and says what that page owner might say the way she might say it. But other times it’s fairly obvious that the person posting isn’t the page owner. At what point is this considered weird or impersonal? In an effort to be professional, some page owners have hired people that make it fairly obvious the page owner doesn’t spend any time on her own fan page.
Do you feel cheated if the page owner isn’t the one posting? After all, you “liked” her fan page to find out more about her and what she has to offer. Or do you feel like it’s much more professional to have a third party posting? After all, you don’t expect a busy celebrity to have the time to post on Facebook 20 times a day.
What gives it away that it’s not really the page owner posting? Does it bother you? Would you rather she did all the posting even if it were less often? Or do you think it’s perfectly acceptable or more professional to find someone specifically hired to do all the Facebook fan page postings? What say you?
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For detailed articles/tips on various communication topics, free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subcribe now and get JoJo’s free eBook, Communication Activities: Finding Time to Talk to Your Children is a Busy World.
This has been a week of words. On Monday, I talked about how our words should be grace-filled as we fulfill Titus 2: 7-8. On Wednesday, I shared A Story of Image. Today I’d like to share a fun video about rhyming. This is from Song Drops. It’s called, I Wrote This Song Before I Knew How to Rhyme. Enjoy your Friday Funny!
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For detailed articles/tips on various communication topics, free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subcribe now and get JoJo’s free eBook, Communication Activities: Finding Time to Talk to Your Children is a Busy World.
Driving through town this past weekend, we saw a young man dressed in “hip hop” like attire with a bit of razor stubble holding a cardboard sign with something on it written in black ball point pen. Stop right there. What’s the image that comes to mind? Yup. That’s what we thought, too.
On one side was written “Call me” with his phone number. He mouthed the words, “Call me” and flipped the cardboard sign over. On the other side was written, “God loves you!” He mouth the words, “God loves you.” Now what image comes to mind?
First of all, the image that came to mind wasn’t of him. It was of me. The word that came to my mind now was convicted. I was convicted. Here I had thought that he was begging for money when he was really wasn’t asking for anything at all, except to help. He had given out his phone number to complete strangers in order to share God’s love with them. Stop right there. What image comes to mind now? That’s what we thought, too.
How many people would he actually get to call him? If you already knew the Lord, you probably wouldn’t call. If you didn’t and weren’t ready to hear it from your family or neighbors, you probably wouldn’t call a complete stranger, would you? Or would you? What image comes to mind at this point?
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
What’s the word that comes to mind now? That’s what we thought, too. The word that came to mind for us was ineffective. But then, my mind began to think of two things and, again, the word convicted came to me.
What if you were at the end of your rope or at the end of your faith at the moment you passed by this young man’s sign? What image would come to mind for you? That’s what we thought, too. Someone who cared was offering help, a shoulder to cry on, a smile at the other end of that phone for the weary.
How many people would actually take advantage of this young man’s offer? Probably not that many, but if even one soul was comforted or, even better, turned to Jesus, there would be rejoicing in Heaven. What image comes to mind now? That’s what we thought, too. This selfless soul was putting himself out there in public to be judged, ignored or worse in order to help another person find the love of Jesus.
Now one more image came to mind. He wasn’t pushing a flyer in people’s face. He wasn’t dragging someone to church. He wasn’t arguing the merits of turning from sin. He wasn’t “doing” anything. He wasn’t offensive. Even the most staunch Atheist would have a hard time getting angry with this young man. He was simply offering love and support. Offering, to whomever would like to take him up on it. The image that came to mind at this point for us was of a changed heart, not only for those hurting and in need of Jesus, but those of us Christians passing by. It warmed my heart. It changed my heart. It showed me another way to show God’s love.
This young man may have only done this that one time and perhaps nobody ever called him, but he shared God’s love to all who passed by that day. What image comes to mind for you? Share your thoughts.
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To learn more about how to do this and other communication topics, receive free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subscribe now and get JoJo’s eBook, Communication Activities: Finding time to Communicate with Your Children in a Busy World.
All this week I’ve been talking about cluttered communication and how we need to simplify, clear out the unnecessary words and slow down our rate of speech. Today I’d like to share a fun YouTube video of a Federal Express Commercial that illustrates how effective fast talkers can be!
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For detailed articles/tips on various communication topics, free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subcribe now and get JoJo’s free eBook, Communication Activities: Finding Time to Talk to Your Children is a Busy World.
On Monday, I talked about decluttering your communication by taking out the unnecessary words and phrases. Today I’d like to talk about Cluttered Communication or Cluttered Speech. While searching the web last week, I found an article about cluttered speech on a website devoted primarily to stammering.
The article talks mostly about the author’s experience with both stammering and cluttering which had made it even more difficult for him to hold a conversation with people. The side bar defined cluttering:
“What is cluttering? Cluttering is defined as a communication disorder characterised by a rapid rate of speech that may come out too fast without proper pronunciation and be somewhat erratic. Cluttered thoughts can make it difficult to express yourself clearly.
Speech can become unintelligible. Phrase patterns can be uneven, some of the phrases or sentences can become interlaced with different sounds, and the context may be difficult to understand. People who clutter may sound as though they are drunk. Their speech can be slurred and they may find it difficult to respond easily to people’s comments.
Sometimes the speaker is unaware that their speech is disfluent at all; others are aware but seem unable to do anything about it. Many people wrongfully categorize clutterers with stammerers. Although this is incorrect, there are similarities.”
Cluttered communication affects more than just those who stutter or stammer. For many, it’s simply become a habit to speak so quickly and/or slur their words such that their listeners find it difficult to understand them. In my research of gifted children, I came across some information that suggested that highly intelligent people tend to speak very quickly. I’ve written many times about the pace of conversation so I’ll just give you a few tips here to help if this is an issue for you.
1. Intentionally slow down your rate of speech
2. Make an effort not to cut off the ends of words as you speak.
3. Make a recording of your normal rate of speech and when you try to slow it down and enunciate more clearly. Then play it back so you can hear your progress.
It may take some practice, but you can train yourself to speak a bit slower and more clearly so that it becomes second nature.
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To learn more about how to do this and other communication topics, receive free gifts and exclusive offers, subscribe to our newsletter! Subscribe now and get JoJo’s eBook, Communication Activities: Finding time to Communicate with Your Children in a Busy World.
As long as we are destroying word illusions this week with Toxic Words on Monday and the meaning of peruse on Wednesday, I thought we’d tackle something else that has been a pet peeve of mine for quite a while.
You’ve probably seen that familiar paragraph attributed to Cambridge University that says that as long as you keep the first and last letters of words in the correct places, you can switch around the letters and still read the paragraph. Here’s a screen shot:
Well, there is more to it than it first appears. Check out this YouTube video of the Brother’s Winn from What You Ought to Know:
Now that they have burst your bubble on this little parlor trick, I’d like to invite you to think about something else. Even if this did work for all words, does it really mean spelling doesn’t matter? Um…no! Spelling DOES matter and for more than just your resume, Word Snobs and Grammar Nazis. Spelling matters for clarity. Think about how difficult it would be to read an entire email, letter or book this way.
Lastly, I invite you to think about this: effective communication demands that you “dno’t mkae yuor raeders wrok so hrad” in order to understand you…or they WON’T!
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“1a: to examine or consider with attention and in detail : study b: to look over or through in a casual or cursory manner 2: read; especially: to read over in an attentive or leisurely manner“
Phones have changed a great deal over the years. I found some fun videos that give us a little insight as to the various major changes that have taken place in our telephone history.
Here is a 5 minute documenary on the introduction of women as switchboard operators.
It’s amazing what training these women had and the strict rules they had to observe while working for the telephone company. I thought I had it bad when I worked in customer service and was tied to the phone except for a half hour lunch and two ten-minute scheduled potty breaks!
Not sure this is true, but I found one video that said, “As dial telephones were introduced – replacing operator service – instructions were shown in movie theaters as to how to use the new instruments.” Seems sort of silly now, but here’s what they say played in theaters to introduce the public to how to use the new dial phones:
Finally, in true Friday Funnies fashion, we skip to modern times with this clip from Ellen introducing the dumbest iPhone apps in history! These are real apps. My dh downloaded a similar fan, but it’s not this annoying! LOL
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