ME NO HABLE

Me No Hable

Ours is a beautiful country with a beautiful language that is made even more beautiful and rich by our different accents and dialects. Even within each state, our speech and language is flavored with our varied regional influences. I like it when people try to guess where I am from, based upon my speech.

On one of our Little League tournament trips, we travelled to Front Royal, Virginia. On the hotel balcony, we met kids from the team representing Saltville, Virginia. One of their eleven year old players was sneaking a smoke and he burned the arm of one of his teammates. My friend and I still laugh today about the statement made by the burned player, who said “Dadburn you Wilson, you burnt the hide off a me.”

For my northern friends, we still say Yes Sir and Yes Maam, and yes you’ll is a word and the plural of you’ll is All of you’ll.

I guess I need to listen slower, but I sometimes wish people would not use so many acronyms in their speech. Sometimes we assume our audience understands our language, our regional dialect, and our acronyms when they do not. A sure fired way to lose me is to speak to me in a language that ME NO HABLE.

Some bored someone, recently googled me and found an interview that was picked up by CNN. (acronym) The interview was from September 26, 1996 and involved a scaffold collapse and the injury of three workers at the old Standard Paper Company warehouse in Richmond.

I was the IC (acronym) at this incident and I remember interviewing the workers. I pointed to my patch and let them know that I represented the Fire Department and that I needed their story for our incident report. One worker described their actions to me in broken English. I then directed a Police official to the workers for his information gathering. The Police official came to me and asked if I spoke Spanish. My reply was “not a word.” He stated that neither did he and the workers would speak to him only in Spanish. He No Hable.

I went back to the worker and explained shirt patches again, that he was not in trouble and a little about his need to hable English and a little about jail. I then told the Police official which worker was ready to be interviewed. We resolved the situation by communicating. Imagine that.

If you speak in an Assumptive, Chronic and contagious, Rhetoric, Often confusing, Not effectively delivering, Your, Message think about your audience who may not hable all acronyms.

To paraphrase the old IFSTA Company Officer manual: “Guard your speech both on and off duty.” HABLE THAT.

I developed an acronym for what I believe is a measured approach to the latest National Institute of Standards and Technology and Underwriter’s Laboratory studies. The acronym is WAFFLE, flavored with positive syrup. It has no negative connotation intended to anyone or any department who chooses to lead after learning and making use of all available information to reach an educated approach to managing new information. After all, there is no fire in the barn.

We

Are

Fact

Finding and

Listening and learning from

Everyone and everything

Hable that.

Thanks as always for reading and sharing.

Have a great day – It’s a GREAT day for it.