Feedback or return? See corporate jargon in English – 06/27/2023 – Careers

This is the edition of the FolhaCarreiras newsletter for this Monday (26). Do you want to receive it on Mondays in your email? Sign up below.

“Can you join an ASAP meeting to talk about the campaign budget and brainstorm to select the best insights? I’ll send you an invite to the call, so we can discuss what will be important in this job.”

Confused by the above sentences full of English jargon? You are not alone.

A LinkedIn search with Duolingo points out that 28% of Brazilians interviewed have already faced misunderstandings or made mistakes at work because they did not understand the anglicisms or did not use them correctly.

According to the interviewees, the most common English jargon used in Brazil are:

1. feedback;
2. networking (professional relationship network);
3. call (telephone or video meeting);
4. job (job or task);
5. insights (sudden ideas).

The study was conducted in May 2023 with 8,227 professionals aged 18 to 76 from the US, UK, Australia, India, Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam and Japan.

Why did it become a fever to use terms in English?

Belonging to the company. Using jargon also shows those around you that you’re a member of the organization, argues Hope Wilson, senior manager of learning and curriculum at Duolingo.

• There are even technical terms understood only by those who work in certain areas, such as “day trade” (a strategy that seeks gains in daily operations with the ups and downs of stocks and indices) in finance.

Boost career. Among those polled by the survey, 67% agree that those who understand the jargon can receive promotions and pay raises.

• Why? “People feel that, by using them, they have greater integration into the company and more connections with their co-workers, which could lead to promotions and raises,” says Wilson.
• But… “That’s what people believe doesn’t mean it’s really true“complements.

Importance of English. Professionals who master the language —and make good use of terms— can excel in job interviews and in their current positions.

• There’s no way to escape: “A 21st century professional is globalized and will come across English at some point”, says Roberta Falcão, CEO of the Ruby Academy English school.

Streamline communication. There are words in English, says Falcão, that express their meaning better than in Portuguese.

• Example: networking is a network of professional contacts. In English, it is a single word, while in Portuguese it needs a greater explanation.

Universalize terms. There is a dominance of English in the business world, so jargon facilitates communication between people from different countries, explains Portuguese teacher Lucy Migliaccio.

• “These are terms that are accepted and understood worldwide. This, in a way, overcomes some barriers”, says Migliaccio, who has a master’s degree in semiotics and general linguistics.

On the other hand, according to the Brazilians interviewed, the most common jargon confused they are:

1. feedback;
2. networking;
3. ASAP (“as soon as possible”, which means “as soon as possible”);
4. briefing (information necessary to perform a task);
5. brainstorm (“rain of ideas” used to propose different solutions to a given problem).

What makes it difficult to understand? “Acronyms and words that don’t exist in Portuguese, like brainstorm. This is not an easy word to define, even if you know a little English. When translated literally, it would be something like ‘brain storm’, which doesn’t make sense “, explains Wilson.

But is it necessary to use jargon to make yourself understood? No. “There are 230,000 words in the Portuguese language. We have countless synonyms for all these jargons”, complements Migliaccio.

columnist for Sheet, the writer and journalist Sérgio Rodrigues states that they are not essential, but they work to distinguish groups. “The main need for jargon is self-created. The idea is a language that differs from ordinary language.”

Inefficient communication. The interesting thing to point out, for Rodrigues, is that the terms may be generating a productivity problem for companies. “It’s something that goes against corporate logic itself and maybe it’s time to reflect on it”, he explains.

• “Professionals take time to understand what is being said, and mistakes can arise from not understanding tasks, emails and meetings”, says Karuna Lopes, Communications Leader for Latin America and Iberia at LinkedIn.

Lack of transparency. Not everyone understands the terms, especially those at the start of their careers or newcomers to the company.

• Why? “The jargon is accessible only to a small group of people who work in the corporate space long enough to learn it”, explains Lopes.

Adapting terms to Portuguese, when possible, makes the more inclusive communicationargues Rafael Almeida, manager of strategic partnerships at Robert Half consultancy.

• Example: Say “follow-up” and “meeting”, instead of follow-up and meeting, respectively.

Want to know more about it? Imported words and changes in our language, from “positive test” to “crush”; listen to the episode of the Café da Manhã podcast here.

My experience

Professionals opine on the use of corporate jargon.

Miranda, who worked for a period at a fintech, is now dedicated to producing content on the internet. Her profile, @ that.miranda, has around 150,000 followers on Instagram, and nearly 100,000 on TikTok.

What content is successful: satires of situations in the corporate world generate the most engagement, according to Miranda.

• The videos are inspired by moments she has already experienced, in addition to situations described on LinkedIn or sent by her followers.

Example that went viral: When giving feedback, the character Rê, from HR, says to the employee: “let’s start your feedback session. Let’s start with your general feedback from the squad in your last quarter. We had several bullet points referring to your absence of focus”.

Which jargons are frequent in the work environment? “Call is a term that has become commonplace. Everyone talks about joining a call instead of a video call. Squad, used to refer to a workgroup or team. Time de people, which used to be human resources.”

Does corporate jargon help or hurt? “I believe that some can be useful and we shouldn’t demonize their use. There is always a fine line, a gray area in relation to what we can take advantage of. There are terms that I use in my day to day and I consider that make sense, such as call.”

When it comes to inclusion: “There are companies that want to include minority groups, but when these people join the company, they are faced with several terms and acronyms in English that they have never seen before. Sometimes, they do not have the same cultural capital because they did not study in the same schools or made an exchange. I, for example, already didn’t know what to do when I heard the expression BRB, which means ‘be right back’ (I’ll be right back).”

Vitória says that, in marketing, there is an “underworld of terms in English”. She mentions some examples: “let’s have a meeting today to create a brainstorm” or “what is the campaign budget?”.

There are also acronyms: “When I worked at an accounting company, they used the acronym FYI (for your information) a lot. At the time, I thought it had to do with accounting. During a meeting, I discovered that the meaning was: for your information [similar ao PSC brasileiro, para seu conhecimento]”.

Do you find any jargon annoying? “Feedback. It could simply be expressed as ‘feedback’ or ‘we can talk later and I’ll give you better guidance’. It’s so used that people even forget it’s an English term.”

Do these jargons help or hinder? “They get in the way, because not everyone knows English and not everyone knows how to pronounce it correctly. If these terms were used to facilitate communication, it would be great, but this is not the case.”

Vinicius claims to be “completely against” the use of corporate jargon, as he believes that there are words in Portuguese that can be used in their place. However, he recognizes that English may be required when dealing with international or multinational companies.

He says he has witnessed the use of such jargon by recruiters, managers and co-workers. For him, it seems to be an ingrained habit, even if they often don’t understand the reason behind the use.

Why? “I’ve come across situations where I’ve noticed an addicted language in companies. These are people who have become accustomed to using these terms in English, such as call instead of call or meeting. There is already a translation available in our own language.”

Do you find any jargon annoying? “Call is one of them because it is recurrent in selection processes. The recruiter sends an email saying ‘I will send you an invitation to our call’. What’s the difference in saying: I will send you an invitation to our meeting or video call?”

It even has jargon that marked it: “At the last company I worked for, my former manager asked me: Vinicius, how is your onboarding going? She wanted to know how my to-do list was and I didn’t understand.”

Do they help or hinder communication? “They disturb, because it creates a language with vices. The person cannot communicate without resorting to jargon.”