Elton John observed that ‘sorry seems to be the hardest word’. Sorry to disagree, Sir E, but for many of us it seems to be the easiest word, one which readily trips off our lips in myriads of situations. But it lacks meaning in many uses.
Ways to Become a People Person with People Skills instead of a People Pleaser
People Pleaser People Person People Skills --- that’s a whole lot of P’s, nearly in the same league as the tongue-twister about Peter Piper and his Pickled Peppers. A proliferation (darn, there it is again) of the P word is inevitable in discussions about communication as we judge and categorise ourselves and others according to the style and nature of our personal interactions.
How Toxic Terms Can Limit our Understanding of Other People
Our lives can be enhanced by virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri and even that bossy satnav guide who may well have an individual name, chosen with as much thought as we give to naming our pets. With the stroke of a key, we can buddy up with ‘The AI companion who cares’, as offered by a recent software advertisement.
How to Stay in Tune When you’re Blowing your Own Trumpet
Way back when, there wasn’t that much discussion about bragging or boasting. It was regarded by and large as A Bad Thing.
What’s Your Line When it Comes to Talking About Your Job?
What's one of the first things we ask about a person we meet for the first time? More often than not, we want to know what their job is. It's an automatic question and it sounds harmless. However, the easy use of the question can be misleading.
On the Rebound: Watch Out for the Boomerang Effect
The boomerang has found a place in our collective consciousness and its handiness as a metaphor can be seen in a range of expressions in everyday use. In social psychology, the boomerang effect describes what happens when your words or actions have the opposite effect to what you intended.
Phub it Out! Don’t Let Your Phone Ruin Your Relationships
The digital age, or just life, as Young Persons of tender years call it, has generated a new vocabulary of expressions, phrases, acronyms, invented and portmanteau words. Much of our spoken and written communication would be unintelligible to previous generations (as indeed it can be to ourselves). Language has bent and adapted to meet new needs in ways which at best are clever, lively, entertaining, and at worst are ugly,clumsy and misleading. Particularly problematic are expressions which mask the reality of what they are describing by seeming to legitimise and endorse behaviour, which, well let's say, isn't great.