PR lesson from my annoying dad, who I now thank everyday.
When I first told my dad that I wanted to go into public relations, he decided at that moment he was going to continuously point out an unprofessional flaw of mine. I know, I know, how could you hate anything that your child does? Aren’t we all supposed to be perfect angels in our parents eyes? Not quite I suppose.
This flaw that annoys him on a daily basis, and is particularly more prominent in millennials, is overusing the word “like”.
“You can’t be in public relations and say “like” every other word. You sound stupid.”
Now I wanted to give him a Nicole Richie reaction, but he did have a point. He began doing this super annoying thing where he would noticeably count the amount of times I would say like using his fingers during our conversations.
I hated him at the time because I failed to realize how much I said like, but now I thank him for annoying me the entire summer before I left for my first year of college. The vocabulary that you use during conversations with others plays a vital role in making a good first impression. Often this can lead to a bad first impression if you’re not careful, especially in a field where professionalism is crucial.
We practitioners are after all supposed to be effortless with our words both written and orally. Now you may not be as bad as a Kardashian, ElleWoods, or even me for that matter. However, I am sure you can like, remember a time when like, you were talking to someone and like, they would literally like not stop putting the word like where it didn’t belong.
As a communication specialist, I love the English language. Sure the odd “like” occasionally slips into a conversation where it shouldn’t, but I try everyday to be as clear and concise as possible with my language.
If you struggle with the same problem I did, here are a few suggestions to try and help you remove it from your vocabulary completely.
Identify your usage
The first thing that I noticed after he pointed it out was where exactly I was using it most. Afterwards, I was able to narrow it down into four different sections:
Reiterating conversations
Making comparisons
Describing quantities
Filling awkward pauses
Alright, so now that you have this information what do you do with it?
Find replacements
Incorrect: “We e-mailed like 35 reporters.” Correct: “We e-mailed approximately 35 reporters.” Incorrect: “I contacted her for the final proposal, and she was like, ‘It’s not going to happen today.’” Correct: “I contacted her for the final proposal, and she said, ‘It’s not going to happen today.’” Incorrect: "She's, like, really irritated." Correct: "She's irritated." Incorrect: “This tastes like chicken.” Correct: “This tastes similar to chicken.”
It wasn’t easy to crack this habit let me tell you, but as soon as I noticed it, it became impossible not to. Practice makes perfect and I still struggle with it from time to time, and of course my dad still enjoys pointing it out.
Try using replacement words and in no time you’ll find that you barely use like at all! I hope that with this post I helped you the way that my annoying dad helped me.