The Trap of Technical Jargon

Technical jargon is a set of words and phrases widely used in a certain field of knowledge that can only be understood by the specialized people who work in that field. Often times, there is reason for a person outside your industry to ever use technical jargon from your specific industry, so based purely on exposure or lack of exposure, they won't know what you are talking about.

Technical jargon, in a broad sense, communicates expertise or knowledge of a specific field of study or industry.

It is the language of the professionals.

So What Does Technical Jargon Communicate?

Technical jargon can be helpful for professionals communicating amongst themselves to be precise or concise, because it is a shared language or common knowledge base between them. They both know the lingo and both understand the lingo.

Sometimes, each and every technical word cannot be expressed in plain english so the use of technical jargon is the most efficient way to communicate.

Let's Imagine two doctors during an operation talking about the location of a tumor in the body. They are trying to talk about where it is located in 3D space. Up, down, left, right, forward and backward change depending on if the patient is lying down, standing up or lying on their stomach. Hence why there are literal technical terms to communicate about the position of things in the body relative to other things in the body in 3D space. It helps ensure both doctors are talking about the same place in the body.

What Does Technical Jargon NOT Communicate

The important thing to know about technical jargon, is it can be lost on someone who is not familiar with the specialty field or industry. If I started talking to you about having deep medial pain on my lower left abdomen inferior to the level of my belly button, maybe you'd need an extra second to figure out where I'm talking.

So talking with technical jargon is only appropriate in specific contexts. It really depends on who you are talking to and whether they share your technical jargon vocabulary.

So, What Does Technical Jargon Have To Do with Non-Native English Speakers?

Immigrants and non-native English communicators often find themselves immigrating to a predominantly English-speaking community for the hopes of a "better life". Typically, they are travelling professionals who hold a technical expertise or advanced education which has facilitated their travel.

They are often highly skilled professionals in their respective industries — the only caveat being they may have difficulty communicating their expertise in English.

Why Do They Use It? And Why Is That Poor Communication

When you move to a new country or to a community where you can no longer use your native language as the primary means of professional communication, you lose something. You lose a component of your communicative confidence. You can't necessarily share your ideas or opinions as easily.

Using technical jargon can sometimes reclaim some sense of that expertise. It can make you feel special, educated, or competent again. Sometimes, the inability to fully or immediately express yourself can rob you of those feelings.

The problem is that to the wrong audience, it can come across as pretentious, ineffective, and senseless. In this case, the wrong audience would be people who do not share that technical jargon with you or the context of your conversation does not requirer technical jargon.

Let's say for example, if you are traveling the world and travel to Korea. You don't speak Korean so when you go a restaurant to sit down and order, you speak in English (to communicate you don't speak Korean). Next, the waiter (without skipping a beat), speaks to you in Korean and looks patiently for your response.

That experience can come across as mindless by the waiter because your attempt to communicate in English did not register with them and they mindlessly continued to communicate in Korean.

What Needs To Happen Next

Learning to Communicate Your Technical Knowledge in Simple Terms.

The best thing to do is ask yourself if your communication setting needs technical jargon.

Talking with your boss - maybe

Talking with a friend who doesn't work in your industry - no

Talking with your wife who doesn't care what you do or work in your industry - no

Talking with your coworker who is dealing with similar problems - yes

Talking with a technical team about a coding bug - yes

Talking with an investor - maybe

A key professional communication skill that client- and investor-facing professionals learn is how to discern the audience's understanding and how to tailor their communication style accordingly. It is important to understand how to explain yourself to non-technical people and communicate the gist of something. It can also be equally important to recognize when it is necessary to use technical jargon to accurately communicate an idea. Explaining yourself in clear and simple terms while remains as jargonless as possible hones your communication skills because it requires you to fully understand your subject matter. It is necessary to fully understand your subject matter to be able to retell it simply to another person.

From a purely probability-based standpoint, you will interact with people who don't understand your technical skills more often than you interact with people that do. Furthermore, as you progress in your professional career, you will be increasingly more senior and talk to more people who are less qualified.

As professionals take on more senior roles, communication streams extend beyond your specialized teams to other stakeholders involved in the project. Investors, other teams, consultants, CEOs, and business partners. These circles of communicators become further and further away from the technical jargon and it becomes increasingly important to disseminate information, and relay it effectively to people who do not sharer the same level of technical jargon knowledge.

Let's imagine a software company with a back-end and front-end team. They also have a distribution team, a media and public relations team. We can't expect the media team to know the technical jargon that the back-end or front-end team deal with. Nor can we expect the back-end or front-end teams to necessarily know the social media schedules, roll outs, performance algorithms and engagement metrics needed from a media management perspective.

As a leader in the group, communicating your questions, commentary and guidance in a way that each team can understand is the only way that they can do what you want successfully. So truly knowing when and what technical jargon is appropriate in what setting is critical.

The video series "5 Levels" by Wired demonstrates this well. You can see with each increasing level, the complexity and specialty jargon can be slowly introduced to communicate more complex or abstract ideas; however, a majority of people you talk to about it only operate in easier levels.

So the next time you design a presentation, practice a sales pitch, or ready a slide deck to show a CEO, ask yourself what phrases or words are technical jargon and are they needed? Is there a simpler way to phrase your statement? What is the point in saying it with the technical jargon included?

In most cases, you'll find that the jargon isn't required and there may be a simpler way to say it.

If that's the case, say it more simply. It may be more effective at getting your point across.

Let me know your technical jargon blunder stories below. I'd love to hear of any A-ha moments you have had.