Speech repetition: A question and an answer at the same time

Linguists use to say that repetition or restatement of an idea not only promotes clarity, but also encourages the acceptance of an idea. Such speech input-output imitation often occurs independently of speech comprehension. 

But in some cases, a repetition serves as an annoyance, and in some other cases, as a simple response or reply to a question being asked.

Let me illustrate to you a few classic examples.

Scene 1: Riding an elevator 

English version

Elevator passenger: "Going down?" / "Going up?"

Elevator attendant: "Going down." / "Going up."

Tagalog version

Elevator passenger: "Bababa?" / "Aakyat?"

Elevator attendant: "Bababa." / "Aakyat."

Scene 2: Going to some place

English version

Person 1: "Just walking?"

Person 2: "Just walking."

Tagalog version

Person 1: "Lalakad lang?"

Person 2: "Lalakad lang."

Scene 3: Acknowledging someone

English version

Person 1: "OK?"

Person 2: "OK."

Tagalog version

Person 1: "Ayos?"

Person 2: "Ayos."

By changing the intonation of the sentences, one could actually come up with a question and answer set. In the above illustration, put a question mark to a sentence or say it in a rising intonation would make it a question form. Put a period and lower the intonation, and presto, you have an instant answer to the same question. But change the period to an exclamation point and that would make the statement an annoyance or exasperation. The trick is to just play it by the ears. 

Therefore, repetition or restatement of an idea—exact repetition or restatement for that matter—also provides an answer. It's like providing-answer-to-your-own-question kind of stuff.

Let’s ‘Dudefy’ the Corporate World

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."  

— Charles Darwin

The corporate world is rapidly changing. The acceleration of all things—as we enter the realm of intelligent infrastructure, mobile technology, and smart automation—offers tremendous pressure for companies to change the way they do business. Thanks to some great dudes for making it happen.

The once mighty hierarchical organizational structure is being run to the ground. The market is being pounded by constant product and service innovation. The hyper-innovative industry is getting smarter and smarter. Virtual office set-up, fast fashion craze, instant business model implementation, and the increasing reliance on multitasking ability are just among the new realities for business. Only those who have the ability to align themselves to high-velocity future trends can survive the new corporate rat race.

Multiple careers

Expect today’s workforce to be completely different in terms of how they view careers. According to Rudolf Melik, author of "The Rise of the Project Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World", a book that provides a comprehensive reference for enterprises that are making the shift to a service-based and project-based structure, “[The younger generation of workforce] fully expect a career path that will allow for multiple different jobs and careers throughout their lifetime, simply to avoid the boredom and tedium that comes with routine. They want to be provided with a regular stream of new projects and varied assignments and responsibilities.”

This paradigm shift is easy to understand because these are the generation who've seen their parents right-sized, outsourced, re-engineered, and transformed, said Melik in his book. “[These younger generation of workforce] come to embrace the reality that there are no guarantees, nothing is long term, and that much of their success will come from their ability to constantly reinvent themselves,” added Melik. According to trends and innovation expert Jim Carroll in his write-up “Don’t Mess with My Powder, Dude!”, his surveys showed that more than 50 percent of American kids now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job.

In addition, Melik views today’s employees as “fiercely collaborative and extremely team oriented.” These ultramodern employees define themselves by what they like to do, not by what they do for a living. Melik points out that these employees don’t subscribe to the concept of a corporate work philosophy that says you have to come to a certain location every day to do things.

Virtual office

“The concept of nine-to-five will have just absolutely disappeared. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to become a nation of home offices, but I think there will be a lot more choices that people will be making as to where and how and when they’re going to be doing the work and what constitutes the organization,” according to Gyle Konotopetz in his write-up the “Futurist eyes next-generation work trends” published online in Business Edge.

Today’s generation of workers prefer to work on a per project or contract basis, rather than full time. They don’t give a damn whether they have an office or not (although, the concept of SOHO or small office, home office, and hoteling are designed specifically for them). They’ve got their smart phones, tablets, or laptops to communicate and do stuffs. They have their webcams and are always online; thus, they can work anywhere and can collaborate with anybody around the globe.  

“I think they’re just going to shake up the concept of the workplace to a huge degree. The reason that hasn’t happened is because of simple boomer resistance to change,” Gyle said. In addition, Gyle has predicted that broad changes can be seen in the corporate structure 10 to 15 years from now as the baby boomers, who have been very resistant to change, will eventually be out of the workplace. 

           

Flat organization

           

For some time now, the predominant workplace trend has been to go flat—giving rank-and-file workers direct access to top management and even the company president. It is an organizational structure in which middle-management functions have been eliminated. It shortens the time to achieve decisions, and at the same time, brings the decision makers close to the “dudes” and innovators.

           

In the book “The Art of Possibility”, the conductor Benjamin Zander describes the flat organizational structure as “leading from any chair”. According to Zander, the system has produced many of the most innovative products and services that people use these days. There is a problem, however, of leadership gap—the traditional route to leadership has been shortened. Also, there are chances of loose control because there are too many subordinates under one manager.

In the web article of Scott McDowell “Why Flat Organizations Don't Create Great Leaders (& What To Do About It)”, he proposed that effective management can be achieved by cultivating leadership in the flat organization, i.e., hiring someone with a strong drive and execution, rewarding leadership, institutionalizing mentorship, among others. By encouraging autonomy and self-direction, a flat organizational structure strives to tap into employees’ creative talents and to solve problems by collaboration.

            

Less aggressive companies opt to establish communication hubs—like the so-called brown bag and town hall meetings—that would serve as a venue for top executives to reach out and talk to rank-and-file employees.

Smart casual

Smart casual is a loosely defined dress code that is casual, yet smart. It is a multi-purpose outfit that is acceptable for formal occasions, dating, or casual social gatherings. Oxford Dictionaries define it as "neat, conventional, yet relatively informal in style, especially as worn to conform to a particular dress code.”

Global men's fashion business Topman emphasizes the flexibility of smart casual by stating that an individual's personality and comfort level of clothing choice defines the dress code. On the other hand, women’s magazine Fashion Central defines a woman's smart casual from an employment perspective by emphasizing the importance of understanding the workplace's environment and culture.

Smart casual outfit can include a mixture of jeans, chinos, blazers, sweaters, dress shirts, or a pair of decent sneakers or leather shoes.

In Japan, the Cool Biz dress code, which is part of the austerity campaign launched by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in the summer of 2005 as a means to help reduce the use of air conditioning to save on electricity consumption, advises workers to wear trousers made from materials that breathe and absorb moisture. Additionally, workers are encouraged to wear short-sleeved shirts without suits or neckties.

Speaking of suit and tie, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson regarded the suit and the necktie as having no place in today’s corporate world. In an interview published in a column at leading business magazine Entrepreneur, Branson believes that suit and necktie don't serve any practical purpose and office workers have been complaining about how uncomfortable they are for generations. The workers feel like they’re putting nooses around their necks every day. Branson further said that the suit and tie is an anachronism; there is no viable argument why gentlemen should wear ties. For Branson, a sweater and corduroy trousers are his standard business attire.

Aside from Branson, U.S. president Barrack Obama, U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, among others, are frequently appearing in public without necktie.

            

The author of “The Smart Creative's Guide to Dressing for Work” Dr. Christian Jarrett said in his article that clothes affect people’s mindset and alter how they feel about themselves. Dr. Jarrett cited a US research published in 2007 by saying that employees described themselves as feeling more productive, trustworthy, and authoritative when they wore a business suit at work, but more friendly when wearing casual clothes. Voila! If that is the case, then wearing smart casual could bring the best of both worlds in smart dressing.

Flexible schedule

           

The Boston College Center for Work & Family conducted a two-year research in collaboration with six large U.S. companies: Amway Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Honeywell, Kraft Foods, Lucent Technologies, and Motorola Inc. The research project is aimed at assessing the impact of workplace flexibility.  Results from this study of 1,353 employees and 151 managers suggest that, in most cases, greater workplace flexibility is a win-win situation for both companies and the individuals they employ.

           

Accordingly, workers who are given opportunities to do their job more flexibly are more dedicated and productive, are more satisfied with their jobs, and are better able to manage their lives outside of work. On the other hand, companies that allow flexibility in the workplace (e.g., flextime schedule, telecommute arrangement, on-call basis, etc.) are finding that their commitment is paying off as manifested by increased in productivity, better quality of work, and lower employee turn over rate.

Employees using daily flextime are more likely to say that this flexibility has a positive impact on their productivity, quality of work, and their plans to stay with the company. For individuals, the findings are equally exciting. Employees working flexibly are more satisfied with their jobs, more satisfied with their lives, and experience better work-life balance.

Way forward

More and more corporate executives are coming to realize that it’s time to throw out the old ways and try some things that are new. Those who are slow to react will be having a hard time to catch up in the new corporate rat race. Those who are unwilling to take good and calculated risks will be facing more uncertainties. Those who are afraid to embrace changes in the workplace and marketplace will just be expediting its corporate extinction.

They have learned that the way forward is not by relying upon their company's solid foundation and traditional way of doing business. They have realized that to deal with the high-velocity future, they must do away with their unyielding, slow-to-respond corporate norms, but instead introduce some new policies to make their companies attuned to the times.  

Running one’s business in this fast-paced world is as important as managing the affairs of today's “agile” workforce, who is sometimes temporary, always transient, part-time in nature, tech-savvy, and multi-skilled in background. The increasing specialization of knowledge, rapid career evolution, relentless market and business change, and globalization have led to an ever-growing reliance on project-based “workforce for hire.”

In the keynote speech made by global management guru and leading futurist Jim Carroll for the Monster Government Solutions Human Capital Management Conference in 2010 in Washington, D.C., he mentioned the shift from continuity to flexibility and the importance of attraction, not retention in the workplace. Carroll said that the depth of the baby boomer skills exodus is of such a degree that there's a need for a lot of flexible work policies in order to retain them, but at the same time, there is a need to play into the unique career attitudes of the younger generation. He further believes that lifestyle, not loyalty is what made workers happy and contented at work.  

           

Welcome to the era of corporate dudes.

REFERENCES:

Branson, R. (2012). Richard Branson on Office Ties and the Company Dress Code. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223670#ixzz2W3Xi25Aq

Carroll. J. (2012). Trending in 2012: What’s to Come in the Year to Come? Retrieved from http://www.jimcarroll.com/2012/12/trending-in-2013-whats-to-come-in-the-year-to-come/#.UbkfzpyeQa8

Jarrett, C. (n.d.) The Smart Creative's Guide To Dressing for Work. Retrieved from http://99u.com/articles/14510/the-smart-creatives-guide-to-dressing-for-work

Konotopetz, G. (2006). Futurist eyes next-generation work trends. Retrieved from http://www.businessedge.ca/archives/article.cfm/futurist-eyes-next-generation-work-trends-13793

Melik, R. (2007). The Rise of the Project Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Project-Workforce-Managing-Projects/dp/047012430X

Coursera - Writing II: Rhetorical Composing

Ohio State University

Assignment X: Revising Rhetorically

By Ludwig Ritchel A. Kalambacal

23 June 2013

The Accidental Writer

I never thought that I would be a full-fledged English writer. I don't even dream of becoming one.

Like some of my fellow coursemates in Coursera's Writing II: Rhetorical Composing, writing was just an outlet and a hobby. But through the years of my struggle both in life and my career, writing became a constant companion. It's now became a big part of me. It gives me joy and comfort as well as provides me a sense of fulfillment and, yes, even money.

I remembered when I was in primary school, my favorite subjects were science and math. I already memorized the multiplication table at a tender age of nine, and had a good grasp of the periodic table of elements at the age of 10. In high school, I always had my good grades in Physics and Algebra.

No wonder, my parents were expecting me to take up medicine or engineering course in college. Out of filial piety, I would just simply nodded whenever my parents would ask me to take this course or take that course when I graduate. But the truth is, I wasn't sure where I was heading after high school. Like fellow Coursera coursemate Tukura John Daniel, the thought of becoming a soldier had became a childhood wish. Thanks partly to my favorite superheroes, Superman and Iron Man, for they somewhat instilled in me some sense of patriotism.   

But my lack of direction in life had contributed much to my dilemma. After high school graduation, I eventually ended up enrolling in a course meant for "undecided students", i.e., Bachelor of Arts. I took AB in the oldest school in Asia, the University of Santo Tomas. In this course, I was introduced a great deal in those fields that were entirely not my interest. Those subjects that, for me, were too boring, like Literature, History, Philosophy, Economics, and Theology.

Whenever I'm attending those subjects, I always felt that the "Law of Relativity" was catching up with me, i.e., an hour of lecture session seemed like a few minutes whenever I was attending my favorite advanced Algebra and Physics subjects, but an hour of lecture seemed like forever whenever I was in my boring subjects.

Hence, I couldn't help myself but to admire the sense of direction of another fellow coursemate Maewest Dias. The moment she stepped into the university, she already knew where she was heading. No wonder this lovely writer, who hails from a remote railway town of Bhuwasal in India, is now an accomplished professor of World Literature in the United States.

After a semester of whiling away my time, I discontinued studying in the AB course. I transferred to another college and shifted course from AB to BSBA, major in Computer Management. No, I've never chosen the course because I've already made up my mind. I just chose it because computer technology was the trend then way back in the 90's.

Like most trends, my interest in the course had faded fast. After barely two years, I saw myself again in the same situation—transferring to another college, this time to a business school, and shifting to another course, this time, I took up business management.

The learner-centered teaching methodology of the De La Salle University - College of Saint Benilde, a reputable business school in the Philippines, made me decide to stay in the course. I could say that the teaching methodology was so effective for it made me appreciate those "boring subjects" that I used to despise before.

Moreso, I learned to explore new fields. In this situation, I can't help myself but to relate my experience with fellow coursemate Alex Owen-Hill. In one of his course write-ups entitled "A Fresh Pair of Eyes", he confessed, "I’m addicted to the process of learning. There are only a few times in my life that I can bring to mind, when I haven’t been enthusiastically engaged in learning some new skill or other." Like Alex, I'm also addicted to learn new things. My quest for more knowledge had led me to attend a seminar-workshop on creative writing.

The Palanca Creative Writing Workshop became instrumental in discovering and shaping the writer in me. In this workshop, I produced my very first "technical" poetry. I considered it technical because it was composed with meters vis-a-vis rhymes—very much different from those monotonous rhyming poems I wrote during my elementary and secondary English classes. In fact, the said poem was published in the literary folio Shades of Gray under the title "The Old Temple".

It was quite a fulfilling experience to see your own composition on print. Nevertheless, I didn't consider myself a writer yet. I merely considered my perennial feat as an opportune accomplishment.

After college graduation, I worked for some reputable companies handling various positions of responsibility. As for writing, "it was nothing more than escapism", to quote coursemate Tukura John Daniel.

In 2000, another publication ensued. This time my sonnet "Beggars and Cars" was published by the International Library of Poetry in the coffee table book "Ballads of Our Lives". 

  

Writing, indeed, became my outlet to express my emotions. I used to keep a Moleskine a la Ernest Hemingway to record my spur-of-the-moment ideas, positive reflections, personal notes, business agenda, doodles and sketches, among others. Like Tukura, "writing was something I did either for fun or to lighten up my heart when burdened. The notion of becoming a writer at that stage of my life appeared far fetched and bluntly impossible."

I'm thankful, however, that my talent in writing is giving me an edge in my management career. I was able to make my business proposals more enticing, and my internal correspondences more compelling.

In spite of my stable career, there seems to be a missing factor. It feels like my life would not be complete without this—and this is the joy of writing. My feeling toward writing is best described by coursemate Alex Owen-Hill: "Writing has been a continuous force throughout. It has provided me an outlet, both to organize my disparate daily thoughts and to create brand new connections between whichever area of knowledge I’m currently interested in and those which have come before."

Again like Alex, "I can’t remember specifically how my writing started, it’s been a sort of continuously layered process for as long as I can remember."

Due to my ability to write vis-a-vis my eclectic knowledge in various industries, I was able to penetrate the advertising world by sheer conviction. I was in a real estate conference when I met this advertiser, who happened to read my industry write-ups. He asked me if I could write a copy for his firm. Without hesitation, I said "yes" eventhough deep inside I was taken aback for my swift response.

But risk-taking is sometimes needed to level up in one's career. This copywriting engagement had opened the door for me to work on several more projects until I bagged the editorial position in Archikonst—the Philippines' longest-running architecture and construction magazine. 

Until today, I'm still enjoying my post as the chief editor of the said magazine, yet my quest for knowledge never stops there because I know, in the words of fellow coursemate Maewest Dias, "something bigger still awaits me." 

Coursera - Writing II: Rhetorical Composing

The Ohio State University

Assignment 1: Getting to Know One Another

By Ludwig Ritchel A. Kalambacal

12 May 2013

Follow this link to read the draft and original manuscript: http://padlet.com/wall/wexmooc_levelup

Why talk about world Englishes, rather than standard English?

In this period of globalization, many variations of Englishes sprouted like mushrooms. English being the choice language for international business, it is important to take note that more and more people are attempting to learn and understand the language vis-a-vis their native dialect.

Disparity in diction, intonation, pronunciation, sentence construction, and idiomatic expressions make one nation's Englishes different from another nation's Englishes. Sometimes, English is being mixed with the local language, like in the case of Tag-Lish (a portmanteau of Tagalog and English), which is widely spoken in some parts of the Philippines. 

Even in the worldwide web, the Netizens seem to have adopted some sort of techno-English when discussing online. The third sex or LGT (Lesbian, Gay, and Transvestite) community has also their own English gay lingo. Moreover, the technical jargons by various professions, like the legalese, bureaucratese, and the likes, could not be discounted.

In short, English is no longer for Americans and Britons, but it is already spoken by almost everybody. Although we may be speaking with the same language, yet the chances of miscommunication and misunderstanding are still there.

Cultural understanding and semiotics must be taken into consideration in order to comprehend one's Englishes. Knowing the people and their way of life and traditions are just some effective ways to be able to relate to them.

Indeed, standard English has gone a long way through the years. It has branched out into several forms. Thus, it's about time to recognize its derivatives and acknowledge its variance and modification.

Coursera - Writing II: Rhetorical Composing

The Ohio State University

Forum Discussion: Why talk about world Englishes, rather than Standard English?

By Ludwig Ritchel A. Kalambacal
27 April 2013

My Marriage to English Writing

I had an unrequited love to English writing before. I loved writing, but writing seemed never love me. Countless of times my compositions were given a "fair", if not "below satisfactory", grade by my English teachers way back during my elementary and high school days.

But such misfortune didn't get in my way to woo English writing. 

Instead of watching cartoons on TV and reading comics, I shifted my interest into reading more serious articles and books and watching non-fiction films on a variety of subjects, like history, literature, business, economics, current events, among others. Moreover, I attended some free seminars and workshops about creative writing and journalism.

It was a long and tedious process, indeed. I could say that making myself become an effective English writer was more arduous than courting a girl. I had to stay awake most of the time, writing and reading and reading and writing, to maintain the momentum going and keep my train of thought flowing.

Those hardships paid off as I've seen the progress of my romance with English writing improved a lot. I finally made the upper hand when I entered my sophomore years in college. I remembered the first time that I attained a grade equivalent to "very good"—and that was so motivating and a euphoric experience. I felt that I wanted to do more. My creative juice was overflowing, filled to the brim. The next good thing that had happened to me was that I was accepted as a member of the literary staff in our college's school organ, The Benildean.

After my graduation from the De La Salle University - College of Saint Benilde with a degree in business administration, I had an opportunity working with several big and reputable companies, performing various capacities in management. My writing skills were honed all the more—composing business correspondences everyday, preparing reports and press releases, and contributing write-ups to the company's newsletter.

My biggest break in commercial writing, however, came when I tried my luck flirting into copywriting. That was a perplexing experience to me since I didn't have any formal study in advertising. I just learned the field through osmosis. 

Armed with a stock of knowledge and determination to succeed, this bold move to do copywriting for an industry advertiser had opened the door for me to enter the realm of publishing. I became a regular contributor of a real estate magazine Space+ and at the same time contributing write-ups as freelance writer to some other industry magazines. Then, an opportunity to level up went my way. I became the editor of an architecture magazine—the same position which I'm still holding presently.

Being the editor Archikonst is daunting but quite fulfilling for me. It came to me as a surprise; thus, I considered myself as an "accidental editor" of the Philippines' longest-running architecture and construction magazine. I was able to bag the highest position in the said publication for being at the right place and at the right time.

Yet this won't stop me from learning more to master the craft of writing. For me, the quest for knowledge must be never-ending. Like an app, a writer must always "upgrade to the latest version" to enhance his or her performance and "fix the bugs".

Writing for more than seven years now, my perseverance and patience have made the waiting all the more worthwhile. I've no regrets pursuing to master English writing. In fact, I feel like I'm tying the knot with it for writing occupies most of my regular and spare times. And this is the only marriage that requires never-ending courtship for I need to always please and entertain my audience. Much more that it is the only marriage that allows "flirtation" and "extracurricular affairs" for I can still do some work stuffs with no conflict at all.   

As a writer/editor, I've already flirted with so many subjects and toyed with a lot of topics. Until now, I'm still entertaining the thoughts of having an unusual, or should I say "kinky", and out-of-the-box compositions. I would always get a natural high whenever I would finish a good composition.

Moreover, I've been together with writing through thick and thin. I write for a living. I write as a hobby or past time. I use to write my happy moments as well as my sad experiences. Or simply, I write to while away my time. 

When I'm very angry, I will resort to writing as my outlet to express my anger. After a while, I would feel my anger subside. Writing, in a way, controls my emotion. It is my punching bag, my shock absorber, and my cushion.

Hence, my love for writing will never dissipate. That's why I consider my affinity to writing as a perfect union. This is a kind of marriage that can never be divorced or put asunder. This magical affinity will stay with me forever... till kingdom come. 

Coursera - Writing II: Rhetorical Composing

The Ohio State University

Assignment 1: Getting to Know You

By Ludwig Ritchel A. Kalambacal

25 April 2013

Follow this link to read the draft and original manuscript: http://www.daln.osu.edu/handle/2374.DALN/4051

There is no magic in J.K. Rowling’s new book

"The Casual Vacancy" author J.K. Rowling

“The Casual Vacancy” is J.K. Rowling’s new novel. This Harry Potter-famed author tried totally something different this time. Her latest book is more crafted for mature audience. Suicide, heroin addiction, rape, mugging, and thoughts of patricide percolate through its pages. There is a sex scene set in a cemetery and alarming scenes of violent domestic abuse. To give you an example of how grotesque the novel is, here is a passage which describes a used condom: “glistening in the grass beside her feet, like the gossamer cocoon of some huge grub”.

According to the book review conducted by New York Times, “The Casual Vacancy”, in some respects, is grappling with many of the same themes as the Harry Potter books: the losses and burdens of responsibility that come with adulthood, and the stubborn fact of mortality. But what’s missing in the novel is an emotional depth of field. In “Harry Potter,” the civil war was literally between good and evil; here, it is between petty, gossip-minded liberals and conservatives. 

Streamin' News: TSP's victory now an 'open secret'

Today marks a momentous event for the techno music career of true seasoned punk. He won a horrendously radical dispute (HRD, for short) over the shitty-shifty lord of the BATS (Band of Armed Tech-y Singers) and his team of liars composed mainly of lyre-playing screaming faggots. Only that the collateral damage is, unfortunately, someone who is dearest to true seasoned punk — his ever amiable floral-scented bossa nova-crooning crush. She was dispatched to perform in another Show.

Being a "bankable rockstar", true seasoned punk was retained in the techno hardcore program to continuously do what he does best, that is, recording high-pitched quality melodies. And his request to be transferred to another techno music band was also granted.

Meanwhile, the main culprits are still at-large, feigning "program compliance", harping on "exemplary performance", and trumpeting their questionable "good records" in every gig. In spite of all these circumstances, true seasoned punk still believes that the law of K (read: karma) will soon catch up with them, hoping that one day a "dell huge of Keats" would finally besiege those cold-blooded suckers.