I humour myself by thinking that my English degree and my years on the public speaking team at University have paid off. Specifically, in the trust of my employers and clients that I can communicate like a normal person.
Sometimes, however, my fond notions crash into the reality of other people's perceptions. Such as when a client, while mentioning another web development studio he'd been talking to, said, "They speak the same language you do."
Ouch.
Yet, that can cut both ways. Such as Monday, when I was attempting to get a fee-quote from a very, very bright information security guy. I haven't had to be responsible for hacker-proofing anyone's servers in 9+ years, which would make me more than dangerous if I tried to do that now.
After a few crossed wires, we finally arrived at the understanding that I would arrange to set up the server, and he would find any security holes in the setup--and fix them. Had I bothered to rummage through my info. security vocabulary, the phrase "harden a Linux server" would have come up earlier in the exchange and saved us a bunch of time.
I told him that that was exactly the info. I was looking for, thanked him for his time and patience, and promised I would keep that phrase in my back pocket to make things easier next time. Because that's how polite, self-effacing Canadians are supposed to roll. But I also sassed, "You infosec. kids and your crazy moon-language." Because, technically, I'm still a wisenheimer American. ;~P
I also owe Bright InfoSec Guy my thanks for the reminder that the most important ingredient of communication is not eloquence, but humility. Specifically, the humility required to set aside your own vocabulary in favour of the other person's. Because even the language of the I/T world has different dialects. And living in the Chiac neighbourhood of l'Acadie, I should understand that experience better than most.
