It's Our Language

One thing that has annoyed me for a long time about being in the science world is the lingo. It sucks to sit down and read a journal article as an undergrad or beginning grad student and have it take forever because you don't understand the language they're using. Why, I've asked myself, can't they use simple language that a layman can understand. When I've got my Ph.D. I'm going to make sure my papers are easily comprehensible on first perusal.

Since coming to grad school I've found myself discussing skiing much more than ever before. I mean, I am in Salt Lake, it's bound to come up in conversation. Unfortunately for the non-skiers around me I can't seem to turn the switch for ski lingo off and they end up lost, smiling and nodding just hoping I'll shut up. I find myself doing what all those scientists do, just in a different setting.

Having been a part of this world for so long, and having completely immersed myself in it for a season, I tend not to think about things like the ski-specific lingo since I use it on such a regular basis. Today I used the phrase avy, not even considering the person I was talking to wouldn't understand. What's more, there are some words like gaper that skiers use on a fairly regular basis, but is incredibly difficult (in my opinion) to define without visuals. If we were at a ski area I could point one out, but ask me to define it and I'm at a loss for words. A gaper is a gaper. Don't be a gaper. End of story.

The point of this is I'd like to apologize to all the laymen (non-skiers) out there. We're not going to change, and I doubt science will change. I guess if you want to be in the know read up; the online guides are pretty stupid, but they do define things like gnar, which is a phrase you'll hear a lot. Powpow should be pretty self explanatory, but I digress.

It's our language, and it's not going anywhere.