You know, the best words are not always the biggest words. Sometimes it’s better to say less, to say it simply, and maybe repeat yourself. Communication is often talked about with a lot of jargon. However, what it really is, is pretty simple. Communication is the process of sharing, spreading, and trading ideas and information. One of the most essential parts of communication that we seem to be forgetting is clarity. Everyone is going to define clarity differently, but for me, it’s transparency.
This means that I’m using communication that doesn’t require multiple levels of decoding. This decoding might involve knowing specific technical terms, or it might have to do with academic or literary references. But if I’m communicating with a stranger, someone who I’ve never met before, ideally, I don’t want them to have to do a whole bunch of decoding.
Part of the reason why I’m passionate about using simple language is because of my grandfather. My grandfather was born in Switzerland during the First World War. He was also one of the best communicators that I’ve ever met. He assumed that all people had transferable skills, and that these skills could help them understand a whole world of things, as long as you explained anything new using terminology they were familiar with. Now he never said that to me using the words I just used, but rather he communicated this idea to me based on how he interacted with me.
My grandfather was a fantastic teacher. He didn’t need you to speak the same language as him, he didn’t need you to have the same background as him, all he needed was for you to be curious, patient, and have some time. His approach was based on making people comfortable, engaging with their curiosity, accepting them where they were, and then helping them move forward. This is also the approach I take to life in general, as well as digital literacy. I believe that literacy comes in many forms and is a transferable skill. If someone has a form of cultural literacy or trades-based literacy, it’s easy for them to become digitally literate, as long as you use language that they’re already familiar with.
It throws me for a loop when I come across software, subscription services, and new forms of technology, where it feels as though regular people are being talked down to or ignored. This frustrates me because it means that everyone’s losing: the organization or brand that launched a product is losing potential customers, and those customers are losing the opportunity to engage with or use something that could help them. I don’t want to say that using simple language is easy, because it’s not. Using simple language means choosing to prioritize understanding over exactness. It means you might sound a bit repetitive, or you might not be able to use a preferred word that you really like.
Using simple language also means that you might not be able to show off skills that you worked hard to get or that you paid a lot of money to receive instruction about. One of the most difficult things about using simple language is it means that people might not automatically assume that you’re really important or smart. However, if you get past all that, and you choose to use simple language, it can help to transform not just your life and your work, but also the impact it can have on others.
P.S.
You don’t have to use simple language all the time (I don’t), but you should be able to rephrase all ideas in simple language whenever it makes sense to do so.
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