Proper Communication is Everything

  I've been involved with some high-spirited, rich dialogue over the last day with a young lady from my former domicile of Greensboro, NC. And it all started with a dose of slang in her Facebook status:

Am I the only one that still says, "I am fena...-anything" as in "I'm fena send an email. I'm fena go to the store...I'm fena whatever...SO UNPROFESSIONAL!

Now, I'm not calling her out, and she actually was kidding and being sarcastic. But as a purveyor of communication, I've been seeing the slang term "fena" (translated to 'fixing to...') used all around Facebook, even among (gasp) some of my former students, since I used to teach high school once upon a time.

My response:

I cringe, because I taught grammar in GCS and Randolph County. Many of my former students are on here on FB, and I cringe even more when I see them using bad grammar (you know who you are, I'm WATCHING you)!
Fena wanna gotcha gonna ain't gonna gitcha anywhere in the business world, trust and believe!

Her response back:

Unless you are a business owner, and got swag! I am kidding. Applying the fundamentals are important as we do not wish to sound ignorant or set a bad example, however we must remember we had a President who could barely read, a poor command of the English language, and a Vice President who could not spell or differentiate between TV moms and real life so to say it won't get you any where is a stretch.

My response back:

This may be true to a certain extent, with all due respect, but I worked extremely hard to to teach grammar, to teach my kids how to write properly, how to speak properly, how to function outside of high school. I was pressured into teaching my kids how to take a 3 hour exam, but taking time to teach the fundamentals on why they needed to write and... Read More speak properly was never encouraged.

I spent time in Washington and Chicago and now in Las Vegas...and I'll be honest, you'll be laughed right out of the employment office or business function saying "gotta-wanna-gitcha-getta-holla-fena, etc." So politics aside, it is a matter of setting a good example. I taught at Andrews H.S. for a year and a half, and my kids will tell you that on the first day of class, I told them that I was not from the hood, I was not from the South, and I'm going to teach you how to speak properly, how to writer properly and how to function in society. And we spent a class session (or two) discussing those very words---words I refused to hear in my classroom.

It was a struggle, it may not have been in the so-called state standard course of study, but I was determined to have my kids be better.

Her response:

Well Mr. Huey, I completely understand your point there. English and a command of the English Language is exceptionally important. I even wanted to be an English Teacher, but that was before I realize there was a difference between English and Literature, so I actually loved and wanted to teach a love of the written word.

The suggestion that "...you'll be laughed right out of the employment office or business function" because of an inability to articulate using words like, "gotta-wanna-gitcha-getta-
holl-fena, etc" flies in the face of Bojangle's very successful national, "gotta wanna need have a Bojangle's" campaign. Somebody raked in big bucks for years behind that one. Whoever came up with that one had to have been told to use proper English at all times.

Which brings me to my next point...being scared of someone laughing at them, is crippling and immobilizes people into inactivity. If you do nothing because you are afraid to make a mistake then you will nnever do anything again. It is the very definition of "what is successful" that must be examined, because I know some very successful peoplle, who have made it there business to butcher the English Language - millionaires....

We have to examine who poor speaking habits fail to work for. There are innumerable business owners who have no command of the rules of the English Language but are smart enough to hire people who do. So we must ask ourselves do we want to create a group of people who have a command of the ever changing rules of the English Language because they are excellent employees, or will we raise innovators, capatains of industry smart enough to seek out people to make them look smarter. I choose to be the later, and an occassional fena every now and then gives me quite the chuckle - no disrespect to your profession.

My response:

No disrespect at all...I no longer teach full-time and I'm currently not a working journalist, so no offense taken. But I still am a communications specialist and a communications analyst. And this interesting discussion has given me fodder for a blog article on this very subject, which is simply communication.

I was quite familiar with the Bojangle's ad campaign while I was in NC, and yes, some of those ads were funny. But it was cringing trying to teach grammar and my kids immediately referenced the commercial and thought "oh well, I've seen it on that Bojangle's commercial so it must be okay." Well, no son, it's not okay. It may be okay to laugh at something like that on TV, but when you're going to work in the work world and/or applying to colleges and when it is time for the interview, it won't fly.

No you're right...there may be some employers who will look beyond an individual's ability to master the English language, and that may be all well and good. But that didn't stop my passion for teaching my kids what was right and what was wrong. What was acceptable versus what was unacceptable. I wasn't trying to influence nor change their dialect. I may have even been the first person to ever tell them that "gonna" was not proper English and my kids knew that if I saw "gonna" on their papers, I was going to crucify their grade. I told them it may have been okay to use out on the schoolyard, but in Mr. Huey's room, "ain't" ain't gonna fly!

I had to go there, I had to take it to their level so that they could understand. Many of them got it, many didn't. But my thought was simply: if I could touch just one child, then my work would have been done.

So when we discuss the subject of communication as a whole, one needs to put it in context with the whole situation.

She referenced an ad campaign by Bojangles, a chain of fried chicken restaurants found mostly in the south. Here's an example:



Let me hear your thoughts on this. Because to me, proper communication is truly everything.

E.C. :)