I have a very low-key teaching style. Today I was teaching a chemistry class and I made some comment about gas molecules zooming around, which made one student laugh and ask me if that was a technical term. I probably could come up with fancy-sounding words (though maybe not while thinking on my feet), but I think it’s more effective to use simple words if the fancy ones don’t add anything different - the easier it is for people to understand the vast majority of what I’m saying, the more likely they’ll be able to focus on the parts that are actually new material, rather than spending time deciphering blather.

People say doctors are really bad with the jargon, and it’s totally true. Half my classmates have already started up with MI for heart attack, hyperlipidemia for high cholesterol, diapheresis for sweating, and “Please move medially” instead of “Move to the middle of the row” to accommodate latecomers.

I realize that some of these offer more precision than the lay terms, and so they’re certainly useful in technical situations, but I’m amazed at how quickly people forget what is actually going to make sense to a normal person who doesn’t spend six hours a day listening to medical lectures.

And some of the terms appear to be replacing other technical terms: evidently, saying “urination” for what the less couth might call peeing isn’t technical enough! We have to call it micturition.

Posted by Amanda in Language, Medicine |