Different Styles of Spoken Language :: Essays on Spoken Language

Throughout my life I have worked in a variety of settings and have learned various skills and techniques when it comes to dealing with others. One of those skills I have learned is how to use different styles of spoken language, to fit in and become accepted. By using different styles in different working environments I have mastered the skill of tongue twisting. Meaning that I am able to convince people I know what I am talking about and make them feel at ease when talking to me. This paper is going to examine two working environments that are very different from one another and in both I used spoken style of speech to become accepted and good at my job. One of the jobs I worked at was, The Graduate Business library of St. Thomas University and the other was, Diversified plastics Manufacturing Plant. Both in comparison, were like night and day. I will describe the two working environments and show the styles I had to incorporate into each job. First, was the Graduate Business Library of St. Thomas University. This was a computer and business resource center that is located in the center of downtown Minneapolis, only blocks away from Orchestra Hall. The people I worked with and assisted were primarily graduate students and professors. I started this job my freshman year and at first it was overwhelming the amount of research data and various business tools, that I had to know and use. I don't know how many of you have ever had to work with graduate students and professors, but they are always in a hurry and they are very demanding. At this job I needed to jump up from the freshman stereotypes and convince them I know what I am talking about. They had no time to listen to a beginning year college student and their seasoned years of school made it difficult to gain their respect. Now I, being the only night assistant realized that given my working environment I had to learn as much as I possible could to somehow gain their re spect. Not so much respect for me, but respect that I was giving them my best effort and all the available resources our center had. By doing this, I developed a style in which I could convince others that and command them, instead of them commanding me. The style I categorized is one with authority and confidence.