I am very tickled with the idea of “Talk like a Pirate Day” as it gives us all another opportunity to give rise to a variety of our voices.

Many may think that talk like a pirate day is a folly, however, did you ever look at how you talk normally? No matter the industry you are in – government, recruiting, non-profit, mommy, daddy- we all have specific ways that we talk a majority of the time. There are key phrases we use and it signifies us as someone “in the know” or not. And interestingly enough when you move from one industry to another, some acronyms dramatically change their meaning! Then there are those acronyms or phrases we throw around no matter where we are or what type of work we do – can I have a doppio skim with splenda? Huh?

We have to look at when we speak with each other are we speaking code that we have developed because of our community or tribe, or are we using this to identify who we are. What does this do to others that we are speaking to such as colleagues, friends or job seekers? Can we have a conversation that does not include a variety of terms, phrases or acronyms that the listener needs to decipher? What happens when we move from one community such as college, government agency or company to another, do we lose our language and how we communicate with others?

We also have our language depending on if we are at home; work, with friends or a new environment. This challenges the brain and is exercise that can be tiring and trying at the same time, but it is actually quite healthy to challenge the brain to speak a different way.

So use Talk like a Pirate Day as a healthy exercise for the brain and an observation of how you use your language to communicate. But most of all have fun, and express of your inner pirate!