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A Criminal Defence Lawyer Paid Me to Stop Saying the Word “Like”
Sounding smart and being smart are different — and both are important.
My roommate lucked out on placing an internship with one of Canada’s top criminal defence lawyers (let’s call him John). After her first day, he sent her home with a challenge: if she, alongside her 3 roommates, could last an entire evening without saying the word “like”, he would give each of us $100.
For context, like, my roommate, like, talked a little, like, a valley girl.
John was concerned for her professional success if she continued to ignore how her word choices impacted the perception of her capabilities. Women have to overcome sexism and go the extra mile to be taken seriously, whether in the courtroom, the board room… or any room, really. If she talked like a valley girl, she’d stack the odds against her.
In other words: she could be the smartest person in the room but if she didn’t sound like it, she’d have a difficult time getting others to take her seriously.
I found out about this challenge later that evening when I was sprayed in the face with water as I was talking. My roommates had purchased spray bottles, filled them with water, and were determined to condition the word “like” out of our vocabulary.
