Chapter 49 Use contrast and avoid jargon

Sometimes, we often encounter such a situation, you have worked hard for a long time, but you still haven't explained what you mean clearly.You are well aware of this matter, but to make it clear to the audience, you need to explain it in depth.so what should I do now?Try comparing it to something your audience is familiar with: Tell them it's like another thing, like something they're familiar with. Sometimes, we often encounter such a situation, you have worked hard for a long time, but you still haven't explained what you mean clearly.You are well aware of this matter, but to make it clear to the audience, you need to explain it in depth.so what should I do now?Try comparing it to something your audience is familiar with: Tell them it's like another thing, like something they're familiar with.

When the disciples asked Jesus why he used parables to preach to the crowd, he replied, "Because they see with their eyes, but they don't see; they hear with their ears, but they don't hear; they don't understand." When you're speaking to your audience on a topic they're not familiar with, can you hope they know more than people know about Jesus?is difficult.So, we have to figure out a way.When Jesus encountered such a situation, what did he do?Do it in the simplest, most natural way you can think of, and that is: connect what people don't know with what they already know.Heaven... what would that be like?Jesus used familiar terms and actions to describe the kingdom of heaven:

"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, and the woman took it and put cornmeal in it until it was all fermented. "Also, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking pearls... "Also, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea..." This kind of metaphor is clear and easy to understand, and everyone can understand it.The housewives in the audience use yeast every week; the fishermen cast their nets into the sea every day; the merchants want to buy pearls... Let’s see how David described Jehovah’s care and kindness. "God is my shepherd, I cannot live without him for a day. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me to clear waters..."

On the desolate green grassland... beside the clear water pond where the sheep can drink - all this is understood by the shepherd. There is another surprising and interesting example: the missionaries wanted to translate the Bible into the vernacular of the tribes around Africa.Among them is this sentence: "Though your sins are bright red, they will be as white as snow." How to translate this sentence?Translate word by word?It is meaningless and absurd for the natives to say that they have never had the experience of sweeping snow from the streets on a February morning.They don't even have the word "snow" in their vocabulary, and they don't know the difference between snow and coal.But they had climbed coconut trees and shaken down a few coconuts for lunch; so the missionaries associated "white" with the coconuts they were familiar with, and changed the line to read: "Though your sins are bright red, they Will be as white as the flesh of a coconut."

In this case, it's hard to find a better translation, isn't it? As another example, if we discuss a contribution to industry in chemistry—catalysts.If you tell people that it is a substance, it is a substance that can change other substances without changing itself.Although it is simple, it is better to say that it is just like a little boy, jumping, hitting, making noise, and pushing other children in the schoolyard, but he is safe and sound, and has never been hit or touched by anyone. Wouldn't it be better ? The following two methods can also make your words more clear and understandable.

How far do you say the moon is?What about the sun?Where is the nearest star?Scientists will answer these questions with a lot of numbers.But science writers know that's not the way to reach a general audience, so they turn numbers into pictures. Renowned scientist Sir James Kimnes was particularly intrigued by people's desire to probe the universe.As an expert in mathematics, he naturally understands advanced mathematics, but he also knows that if he only occasionally uses a few numbers in his writing or speech, that will be most effective. Our sun and the surrounding planets are so close to us that we don't know how far away other objects revolving in space are, so he said in "The Universe Around Us": "Even the nearest A star (Proxima Centoli) is also 40232500000000 kilometers away, so how big a number is this? To make this number clearer, he said that if a person takes off from the earth and travels at the speed of light— —299,329 kilometers per second—flying, he needs four years and three months to reach Proxima Sendori.

In this way of explaining the vastness of space, Kimnes's explanation is much more real than the simple question describing the size of Alaska I heard at Missouri State Teachers College in Wallensburg.The man said that the area of ​​Alaska is 950,780 square kilometers and the population is 64,356 people, and then left it alone, and never showed its size to the audience. More than 900,000 square kilometers - what kind of concept is it?Ordinary people obviously don't have such a concept.People don't think about square kilometers, and they can't form a specific image in their minds. They can't even imagine whether the 900,000 square kilometers is bigger or smaller than Maine.But if the speaker says: The coastline of Alaska and its islands is longer than the distance around the world, and its area is larger than Valmont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, etc. Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee combined are slightly larger.Wouldn't this give everyone a fairly clear idea of ​​the size of Alaska?

For another example, he said that there are 64,356 people in Alaska.I bet not one in ten people can remember that number for five minutes -- not even for a minute.Why?Because, saying this number at such a fast speed can not leave a clear impression on others, it will only give people a loose, unreliable feeling, like writing on the beach, and the next wave will completely erase these. Lose.Wouldn't it be better to state the figure in terms familiar to the audience?For example, St. Joseph is not far from the Missouri town where these listeners live, and many of them have been to St. Joseph; and the total population of Alaska at that time was 10,000 fewer than St. Joseph's.So it’s best to talk about Alaska’s population in terms of the town where the speech was made: “Alaska is 8 times the size of Missouri. But it has only 13 times the population of Wallensburg, where we live. "Isn't this better?

Look at the following two examples, which one is clearer and easier to understand? a.The closest planet to us is 56 trillion kilometers away. b.If a train travels at a speed of 1.6 kilometers per minute, it will take 248 million years to reach our nearest planet; if it sings on that planet, and the sound can be transmitted back here, it will take 3.8 million years; Connecting the earth to that planet, the spider silk would weigh 500 tons. Another example: a.St. Peter's Church is the largest church in the world, 77 meters long and 120 meters wide. b.It is about the size of two Washington Capitol buildings stacked on top of each other.

Sir Oliver Roger happily used this method when he explained the size and properties of atoms to a lay audience.He told a European audience that there are as many atoms in a drop of water as there are in the Mediterranean Sea.Because many people in the audience spent a week on a boat from Gibraltar to the Suez Canal, passing through the Mediterranean Sea.He also said that there are as many atoms in a drop of water as there are all the grass and trees on the earth. Author Richard Harding Davis told a New York audience that the Mosque of Hagia Sophia was "about the same size as the hall of a Fifth Street theater." "Looks like Long Island City, USA, if you go in from the back of it."

I remember a few years ago, a member of our training class described the horrific death toll in traffic accidents on the road: "You are driving across the country, from New York to Los Angeles. Suppose there are coffins instead of road signs on the side of the road. Each contains a victim of last year's road massacre. So when you drive fast, you have to pass one of these eerie signs every five seconds along the way. They are erected every 1.6 kilometers from one end of the country to the other. twelve!" Every time I take a car in the future, the car is not far away, and this scene is so clearly reflected in my mind. Why is there such an effect?Impressions don't last long, they roll off like slap on the smooth bark of a beech tree.But what about the impression you saw?Many years ago, I saw with my own eyes a cannonball embedded in an old house on the banks of the Danube - a cannonball fired by Napoleon's artillery at the Battle of Ulm.The visual impression is like that cannonball, which hits you with overwhelming force, embeds itself in your brain, clings to it, and drives away all cues of disapproval, just as Napoleon drove away the Austrians. From there, you can apply this principle to your speech.If you were to describe the Great Pyramid, first tell your audience that it is 150 meters high, and then give your audience an idea of ​​how tall it is by comparing it to buildings they see every day.It can be said how many streets can be covered by the base of the Great Pyramid.Don't just say how many thousand gallons or tens of thousands of barrels there are, you should also say how many rooms of your current lecture hall can be filled with this much liquid.If you're going to say 7 meters high, why not say "one and a half times the height of this ceiling".If you want to say the distance in kilometers, you might as well say the distance from here to Union Station or to a certain street. Isn't that more clear? If you work in a technical profession—for example, a lawyer, doctor, engineer, or highly specialized profession—be extra careful to use ordinary words and phrases when speaking to people outside your profession. Also add the necessary details. I said to be extra careful because of my professional responsibilities.I have heard hundreds of speeches that failed because of carelessness, and they failed so badly.The speakers were clearly ignorant, and the general audience generally lacked knowledge of their particular industry.What will be the result of this?They eloquently babbled, using phrases that were common to their experience—words that naturally meant something to them, but were as bewildering and incomprehensible to the lay listener as Iowa and Iowa after a heavy rain. New dirt from Kansas is muddying the Mississippi River. How should such a situation be avoided?Should have read former Indiana Senator Beefridge's advice: "The best way is to pick out the least intelligent person in the audience and try to interest that person in your speech. Then you can only describe it with clear and understandable facts, clearly Explain that you can do this. An even better way is to target your speech to the little boy or girl who keeps his daddy company. "Then you say it to yourself -- or you can say it aloud to your audience, if you prefer -- and you try to make it simple enough that that little kid can understand and remember what you mean by explanation of the problem, but also to be able to tell others what you told him." To give an example in a training class, a doctor gave a speech: "Breathing with the diaphragm is of great help to the peristalsis of the intestines, and it is a gift to health." He wanted to use this sentence to take this part of the content , and then hasten to tell something else.The teacher interrupted his lecture to ask the audience to raise their hands if they had a clear idea of ​​how diaphragmatic breathing differs from other styles of breathing, why it is particularly beneficial to health, and what peristalsis is.The result surprised the doctor, so he went back and explained again: "The diaphragm is a thin layer of muscle that forms the bottom of the chest cavity and the roof of the abdomen at the base of the lung lobes. When the chest cavity breathes, it arches like an upside-down washbasin. "When doing abdominal breathing, each breath will force the muscular arch to push down, making it almost flat. At this time, you will feel that the stomach and intestines are being squeezed by the belt. This downward movement of the diaphragm The pressure massages and stimulates the upper organs of the abdominal cavity—stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, etc. "When the breath is exhaled, the stomach and intestines are pushed up against the diaphragm again, and there is another massage, which helps the excretion process. "Many causes of health problems come from gastrointestinal discomfort. Most indigestion, constipation, and intoxication in the body will disappear if our stomachs are properly mobilized by deep diaphragmatic breathing." No matter what explanation you make, it is always good to start from simplicity to complexity.Say you want to explain to a group of housewives why the refrigerator must be defrosted.It would be wrong to start like this: "The principle of freezing is that the evaporator absorbs heat from the inside of the refrigerator and emits it to the outside. When the heat is sucked out, the accompanying moisture will adhere to the evaporator and pile up a thick layer, causing the evaporator to insulate, resulting in The motors were run frequently to compensate for the insulation created by the thickening frost." Most housewives will not understand what you are saying.It is easy for housewives to understand if they start with things they are familiar with: "You know where the meat goes in the freezer. Then you know how the frost builds up on the freezer. It gets thicker and thicker every day, and eventually the freezer has to be defrosted to keep the freezer running well. The frost around the freezer is like the blanket you put on your bed, or like the asbestos in the walls for insulation. The thicker the frost, the harder it is for the freezer to suck the hot air out of the freezer and keep it warm. As a result, the refrigerator motor has to run more frequently and for a longer period of time to keep the inside of the refrigerator cold. If an automatic defroster is installed in the refrigerator, the frost will have no chance to thicken, and the number and time of motor operation can be reduced.” Regarding this issue, Aristotle also once had a wise advice: "Think like a wise man, speak like a common man." If you must use technical terms, wait until you have explained them to the audience, so that everyone can understand the main point of the speech , and this is especially true for keywords you use frequently. Once I went to hear a stockbroker speak to a group of women.These women wanted to understand some basic principles of banking and investing, and he put them at ease with his simple language and conversational style.Originally, he explained everything clearly, only some basic words were unfamiliar to them.He speaks, for example, of "clearing houses," "taxes and payments," "mortgages for refunds," and "short and long-term buying and selling."And thus turning a good and moving discussion into a cloud of fog simply because he didn't understand that his audience was unfamiliar with his jargon. However, even if you know a keyword your audience won't understand, there's no need to avoid it.Just explain it as soon as you use it.Be sure to explain, you must know that you have a dictionary for your use! Do you have any comments on the singing commercial?Or about impulse buying, about liberal arts courses or cost accounting, about government grants, or cars that drive in the opposite direction, whether to take a tolerant attitude towards children, or LIFO's method of valuing inventories, etc.No matter what the subject matter, you must let the audience have the same understanding of the keywords in your fields as you do.