If you were a character in a book...

[Wendy, Goddess of the Corn]

Your english teacher banned the word cool?

Why?

[Ebehi]

Not really banned it but she told us not to use it any essays or anything we wrote in class

[Wendy, Goddess of the Corn]

Ah, yes. Cool would be a little weird in an essay. Got it.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

V.E. wrote: "Not really banned it but she told us not to use it any essays or anything we wrote in class"

Your English teacher is right to push you out of your comfort zone by forces you not to use words in your everyday vocabular. If everybody uses the word, "Cool," in their everyday speech, it loses its meaning in writing.

[Jeanne]

And essays require standard English, not slang.

[Wendy, Goddess of the Corn]

S'up wid dat, man? Like don't be hate'n.

Okay. I can't do the slang thing well. When I was in high school, it was all valley girls. Like totally. I wasn't one, but I did have to purposely weed loads of "like"s out of my vocab.

[Jeanne]

Yes, I think 'like' was contagious. Some people managed to put six or seven 'likes' in one sentence (or non-sentence in some cases).

[Wendy, Goddess of the Corn]

Don't forget "you know" too. It was like, You know, totally like hard to like understand, you know, what like stuff they, like totally wanted, you know, to like say,you know?

[Kate]

I sometimes will completely tune out what a person is saying because I am too busy counting how many times they say "like". Though "you know" is also fairly endemic. And there are some people who can't say anything without prefacing it with "Basically -". Or people who say "I mean" a lot as in "I mean, yeah, I mean she's nice and all but I don't like her, know what I mean?"

[Jeanne]

Yikes! When I was in my 'teens, the stock phrase was "You know what I mean..." This, in a shared subculture, excused the speaker from the task of making a precise explanation.

[Rita, Busy Bee]

I had to attend a end-of-year Christmas award ceremony for work. We got the rah-rah-what-a-wonderful-year speech along with the we're-the-best-company-ever-and-going-to-be-top-of-the-world-next-year speech. I got through it by counting the number of "you know" phrases inserted every half a sentence.

[Jeanne]

Ha ha ha! Was there a winner among the speakers for the most 'you know's?

[Rita, Busy Bee]

The CEO who gave the main speech. But then he got 30+ minutes to speak and everyone else got 5 minutes each. However, I think he had more you-know's in 1 minute than anyone else did in 5. He also had a lot of um's and okay's.

And I thought, "I'm glad I'm a writer and not a public speaker!" Because I would be just as bad, I'm sure. As writer, I can edit all that out.

[Wendy, Goddess of the Corn]

Rita, is the CEO the one that was asking for the reports or was that someone else? I keep hoping for change for your job.

[Jeanne]

Your CEO should join Toastmasters International. My dad participated in it for at least a couple of years and he could express his ideas very well. He never went to college, but when the TV interviewers came to the Tacoma Telephone Pioneers Museum, he was the one they interviewed.

[Michael]

"You know what I mean?"
can be said in different ways. When I was younger there was a very potent revolutionary marxist speaker who was a very effective orator. When he stabbed his finger at the crowd and said 'You know what I mean" it wasn't a question, rather a statement no one dared argue against. As one we silently nodded. Of course we know what you mean. He used the formula to high light and reinforce - rather like a good old time evangelical preacher. And it worked :)

[Rita, Busy Bee]

Wendy wrote: "Rita, is the CEO the one that was asking for the reports or was that someone else? I keep hoping for change for your job."

I'm a direct report to the Director of Quality Assurance. I'm supposed to have a manager between him and me, but he's never assigned one. In fact, he's refused to assign one. And he's the one who is causing all the problems for me.

His boss is the VP of IT, and it was the VP who requested the anonymous survey of the entire department under my boss. We've heard nothing back yet as to the results of that survey.

Then the CEO is right above the VP.

[Gwendolyn]

"Be Prepared" is the scout motto, but one that is applicable regardless of gender.

"Know both thy subject matter and that thy subjects matter"... I forget from whence this comes... is something I learned long ago.

The skill of public speaking is an essential tool for any CEO. For that matter it is an essential skill for anyone who is ever going to speak in front of an audience or classroom or courtroom or who is going to be a commander of people.

The majority of speeches, presentations and (fill in the ____ ) are ad-hoc and are given without the benefit of tele-prompters, written word or even notes on the back of an envelope or scribbled on a cocktail napkin. (Besides, one finds they're usually illegible and often soggy.)

One must be prepared to speak on any facet of ones business operations at a moments notice. Key facts and figures, the status of all projects, programmes and customer-related delivery issues and problems are the first thing an effective CEO reviews each morning and at end of each business day.

For most of us these are learned skills. We do not emerge from the womb as orators or masters of the universe or business world.

When I was at school, we learned we could be called to stand before our peers and present impromptu discourse. Today it seems as if only those who choose debate class orclub or whatever schools are calling it learn the skills of public speaking before entering university.

Toastmasters is an excellent organisation; one I recommend to all executives or those who have aspirations to public service.