Parlez vous Jargon?

Parlez vous Jargon?

Vector graphics, dpi, 4 colour process, gate fold, PUR binding, bleed, PostScript. Do you understand these printing terms?

A lot of us have been there, in a country where you know a little of the language but you don’t know as much as you would like to, especially we British who are notoriously bad at learning languages! We expect everybody to understand English.

At work, every industry sector has its own jargon, which has built up over time. For the people who work in a particular sector, the jargon becomes a second language, it is widely spoken at work so they have picked it up over time and fully understand it.

What about people who are from a different sector but sometimes have to deal with this ‘foreign’ sector? They may know a few words but they are not fluent. Just like learning a language from a different country, you may be able to get by and make yourself understood but invariably make mistakes.

Making mistakes in another language may cause some embarrassment but it is not usually too much of a problem. At work though it can cause a mistake that costs time or worse still, money. Are you someone who has to deal with another sector at work? Maybe you work in procurement and have to buy goods or services from another sector, are you able to specify exactly what you want in a language that is understood?

The problem is, where do you go to learn jargon? Do you just get by and pick it up over time? The best solution of course would be to go to classes and learn this new ‘language’ but where would you go?

In our industry, there are hundreds of years of jargon and hundreds of words. Our aim is to give our customers a great experience, so we are here to provide the benefit of our knowledge as most companies do. However, we like to go one step further. We can come to your office and present a guide to print jargon.

We don’t expect you to be fluent in print jargon but if you are, it makes work easier for all of us and it prevents mistakes. Do you know how to specify the fold you want correctly, the binding method, the material? Please don’t be reluctant to ask, if you would like us to come to your office for an hour, we would be delighted to help. We will leave you more fluent in print jargon and even give you a ‘print jargon guide’. The best bit is there is no homework and no exam at the end!